What Drives the Cost of Exterior Painting in the Northwest Metro?

The short answer: Siding type and condition, how much prep the old paint needs, how many stories and how hard the walls are to reach, and whether the color is changing. Those four move an exterior painting estimate more than anything else. Two estimates for the same house usually differ in the prep and the number of coats, because one painter priced the whole job and the other priced a coat of paint.

This post has no dollar figures in it on purpose. Prices change, houses differ, and a number without a walkthrough is a guess. What we can do is show you what we look at when we write an estimate, so you can read one, compare two, and know which questions to ask.

Siding type sets the starting price

The first thing that decides the job is what the house is wrapped in, because it decides how much paint the wall takes and how it has to be applied.

Cedar lap siding, common on the acreage lots around Medina, Greenfield and Corcoran, is either stained or painted, and the two are different jobs. Rough-sawn cedar drinks product; smooth cedar takes less. Cedar that has been stained and is now going to paint needs primer over the whole house first.

Hardboard and composite lap siding is the workhorse of the 1980s through 2000s stock across Maple Grove, Plymouth and Rogers. It takes paint well when the edges are sealed and it fails from the bottom edge of each board when they are not, so the condition check matters more than the type.

Stucco, on a lot of the older Plymouth and lake-home stock, takes more product than lap siding because of the texture, and hairline cracks need attention before paint.

Vinyl can be painted, with a product made for it and a color no darker than the original, or the panels heat and warp. It is the least common thing we paint and the one with the most rules.

Fiber cement paints well and sheds water fast. It is usually the least prep of any of them.

The condition of the old paint

Two houses with the same siding can be very different jobs. What we look at:

• Chalk. Run a hand across the siding. If it comes away white, the house has to be washed thoroughly before anything will stick, and that is a day.
• Peeling. The percentage of the house that needs scraping and sanding down to a feathered edge is the biggest labor variable in prep. A house that is ten percent peeled and a house that is half peeled are not the same job.
• Bare wood. Anything scraped to bare wood gets primed before finish coats. More bare wood, more primer, more time.
• Previous coatings. A house with several old coats built up on the trim may need more scraping than a house painted once. Older homes in the pre-1978 stock, which includes a good share of downtown Delano and Buffalo, may have lead paint under the top coats, and that changes how the prep is done and contained.
• Mildew and shade. A north wall under trees carries mildew that has to be treated, not painted over.

Why prep hours vary so much between painting estimates

This is the section we would ask you to read twice.

Prep is where most of the hours on an exterior go, and it is the easiest part of the job to leave out of a number. On a walkthrough we price each step on its own: how long the wash takes and how long the house needs to dry after it, how many hours of scraping and feathering the peeled areas need, how much of the house gets spot primer, how many feet of old caulk get cut out and replaced, and how much masking the windows, roof, decks and plantings need before a sprayer comes out.

A painter who skips any of those can write a lower number. The difference shows up two or three years later as peeling in the same spots that were peeling before the job, because the new coat went on over the old failure instead of over a sound, primed surface.

Repairs are the smaller piece on most houses. Any soft trim we find gets written on the estimate as its own line, separate from the paint, so you can see exactly what it adds. Our rot and trim repair page covers what that work looks like.

So when two estimates for the same house are far apart, look at the prep first. If one spells out the wash, the scraping, the primer, the caulk and two finish coats, and the other says “paint house, two colors,” they did not price the same job.

Height, stories and ladder access

Height is the plainest cost factor. A two-story takes more ladder and staging time than a rambler, and the pace at the top of a ladder is slower than the pace at the bottom.

Access is the less obvious part. Things that add setup time before any paint goes on:

• A walkout on the back, which turns a two-story into a three-story on that side.
• A steep grade or a retaining wall where a ladder cannot sit flat.
• Decks, porches and planting beds against the house that have to be worked over or around.
• Rooflines that need a ladder on the roof itself, or a lift.
• Window wells and egress windows on a lower level.
• Lake homes where the water side has a narrow strip of ground and the wind is a factor for spraying.

None of these are reasons not to paint a house. They are hours, and they belong in the estimate rather than as a surprise.

Changing the color

Repainting a house the same color, or close to it, is the least expensive version of the job. Two coats cover, no primer step, and a missed spot is not obvious.

Changing color adds work in both directions. Light over dark usually needs a primer coat or a third finish coat to hide the old color. Dark over light often needs a tinted primer so the finish coats do not look thin at the edges. Deep colors also use premium paint that holds pigment, because a dark wall that fades unevenly on the south side is not something anyone wants to look at in year four.

Paint sheen and product

Flat and low-sheen finishes hide surface flaws and are what most of the housing stock here wears on the siding. Satin shows more and cleans better, and it is common on trim and doors. Higher sheen shows every ripple in old hardboard, so we steer away from it on siding.

Product grade matters more outside than in. Premium exterior paint costs more per gallon and lasts longer per coat, which is the cheaper path over the life of the house. On siding we spray and back-brush, which uses somewhat more product than spraying alone but puts it into the grain and the laps where the bond forms.

How much trim the house has

Trim is brushed, not sprayed, and it is where the hours go on a house with a lot of it. What we count:

• Windows, and whether they have grids or divided lites on the exterior.
• Shutters, which come off, get painted flat and go back up.
• Corner boards, frieze boards, water tables and any decorative band.
• Fascia and soffit, and whether the soffit is wood or aluminum.
• Doors, garage doors and their casings.
• Porch posts, railings and columns.

A two-tone or three-tone scheme, with a body color, a trim color and an accent on doors and shutters, adds masking and cut-in time over a single trim color.

Garages, sheds and other extras

The estimate should say exactly what is in it. A detached garage, a shed, a fence, a deck railing or a pergola each add square footage and their own prep. The garage door itself, if it is steel and chalking, is a wash-scuff-prime-paint sequence on its own. Storm doors, mailbox posts and light fixtures are small but they are line items if you want them done.

How to compare two painting estimates

Put them side by side and check that they describe the same job:

• Same number of finish coats, and whether bare wood is primed first.
• Siding sprayed and back-brushed, or sprayed only.
• Trim brushed.
• Old caulk cut out and replaced, not painted over.
• Any repairs listed as their own line, separate from the paint.
• What is included: garage, shed, fence, deck, doors.
• Cleanup and a final walkthrough with you.

If one estimate answers all of that and the other is a number on a card, the difference in price is usually the difference in scope. The exterior painting page describes our standard job in full.

If you would like an estimate written that way for a house anywhere in the northwest metro, reach us through the contact page and we’ll set up a walkthrough.