How long does an exterior paint job take?
Usually 2 to 4 days.
2 to 4 days
Most exterior repaints, start to finish.
How much scraping your house needs is what moves it.
The order the work goes in
It’s the same sequence on nearly every house. What changes is how long each part takes.
Cover and protect
Plants, walks, drives, decks, windows, lights and anything else that’s not getting painted.
Wash
Dirt, chalk and mildew come off first. Paint doesn’t stick to any of them. The house also has to dry before the next step, which is part of why weather drives the schedule.
Scrape and sand
Loose and failing paint comes off down to a sound edge. This is the step that separates a quick house from a long one, and it is the one you can judge yourself by looking at your own siding.
Repair the rot
Soft trim, sills and bad boards get repaired or replaced before paint goes anywhere near them. More on how rot is handled.
Caulk and prime
Open joints get caulked. Bare wood and any repairs get primed, because paint over bare wood is a short term answer.
Paint the body
The siding, in the color you picked, in the number of coats the surface needs.
Paint the trim and the rest
Trim, doors and window casings. Each extra color here is another pass.
Walk it with you
Go around the house together.
What makes a job run longer?
- Weather
- Rain stops the day, and so does an overnight low of 35 or under. Damp siding doesn’t: as long as there’s no water running down it, the crew can paint. Why the night matters more than the day.
- The working day
- The crews generally work 8 to 5, and you’re typically told a couple of days before they arrive.
- How much is peeling
- Scraping and sanding is the one part that can double a job.
- Rot found behind the paint
- Some only shows up once the scraping starts. Repairs have to be made and primed before painting goes on over them.
- How many colors
- Body, trim, door and any other color you pick. Every extra color is another setup and another cut line.
- Size, height and access
- Two stories, steep ground and tight corners all slow the same amount of square footage down.
Worth asking, of us or of anybody
- How many days, and which days, in writing with the price.
- What happens to the schedule if it rains for three days.
- How much scraping this house needs, and what’s being done about the bare wood underneath.
- Who is on site each day and who to call if something comes up.
A painter who can’t answer those at the walkthrough hasn’t looked closely enough yet.
Get your price and your days
Send a few photos of the outside of the house with your request. Both numbers come from the look, not from a page.