Exterior House Painting Cost Calculator: 2027 Prices

How to Use the Exterior Painting Calculator

You can fill in most of these from the curb with a tape measure.

1. Footprint. Measure the outside of the foundation and enter its length and width. For an L-shape, enter the overall length and width as if the missing corner were filled in; the wall total comes out the same. For a U-shape or deep notches, add up every outside wall, halve that number, and split it between the two boxes.
2. Stories. Ranch, cape and raised ranch have presets. For a colonial, Victorian or anything else, pick the true floor count.
3. Roof pitch. Steeper roofs mean bigger gable triangles to paint. On a 40×25 ft cape, an 8/12 pitch adds a bit over 200 sq. ft. compared with a 3/12. Hip roof? Choose “flat,” since it has no gable walls.
4. Coating. Regular or premium paint suits almost every house. Clear poly is only for bare cedar or pine that’s never been primed; it won’t bond to painted siding.
5. Coats. The default is one, because that’s how most painters quote. Two usually pays for itself (see below).
6. Difficulty. Most capes, ranches and colonials with clean walls and easy access are simple or medium. Towers, fancy millwork, tight side yards and steep grades push it up. Victorians are nearly always “cut-up.”
7. Prep level. Be honest. Flaking paint and rotted boards are not “basic” prep.
8. Windows and doors. Count every opening, garage doors too.
9. Trim color. Contrasting trim is the default. One color (typical for all-white houses or clear poly) saves a little, since the crew mixes one batch and cleans one set of tools.
10. Region. Pick your region (the map below shows which states fall where) so labor and material rates match your area.

How Much Does Exterior House Painting Cost?

A plain 1,500 sq. ft. ranch with sound siding runs roughly $3,630 to $5,430 for a standard one-coat job, with most bids landing near $4,480. Three things push the price up from there:

• Prep and rot repair. Peeling paint and soft trim add hours, sometimes days.
• Height and shape. Second stories, tall gables, dormers and lots of corners mean more ladder moves.
• The coating. Premium paint costs a bit more. So-called ceramic coatings run about two and a half times the price of a normal job.

If a quote comes in well above the calculator’s high number and nothing about your house explains it, you’re likely paying for a sales team, not better paint. Compare bids from three local painters before you sign.

Two Coats and Real Prep Make the Paint Last

Wood, fiber cement and engineered wood siding typically need repainting about every five years with a single coat. A second coat adds roughly 20-25% to the bill but stretches that cycle to nine or ten years. You pay about a quarter more once instead of the full price twice.

Prep matters just as much. New paint over loose paint fails within a couple of seasons. A proper job starts with a power wash, then scraping, wire brushing and sanding until every edge is tight.

Rotted wood comes out, period. Replace soft trim with PVC boards like AZEK so it never rots again. Check the bottom course of siding and anywhere a wall meets a roofline, since that’s where water sits. If more than a few boards are shot, price out new siding before sinking money into paint.

Thorough prep plus two coats runs about a third to a half more than a bare-bones job and buys you a decade or more before the next repaint. Skip the prep and you’ll repaint in three or four years, with more rot to fix the second time around.

Ceramic Coatings: Big Promise, Little Proof

National franchises push ceramic coatings hard, at two to three times the cost of a good conventional paint job. We haven’t seen independent testing that backs up the “lifetime” claim, and the big-name paint makers aren’t the ones making it.

Read the warranty. When the coating peels, many sellers blame the homeowner for skipping “maintenance” and deny the claim. We kept the option in the calculator only so you can see the price gap.

Hiring a Painter Without Overpaying

Go small and local. With an owner-operated crew, the person who bids the job is the one on your ladder, and the price reflects real labor and materials.

The national brands mostly hand the work to those same neighborhood crews anyway. Every layer between you and the brush adds margin, and once head-office costs and a salesperson’s cut are stacked on, the bill can double. Put what you save into prep and a second coat.

What to Finish Before You Paint

Paint goes on last. If window replacement or new gutters are on the list, finish those first so nobody scuffs fresh paint. Doing the inside too? Price it with the interior painting calculator.

Before you collect bids, rerun the calculator above with two coats and your honest prep level. Then get free quotes from local painters and hold each one up against that number.