Cost Guide: Painting The Exterior of A House
It’s gone in and out of fashion over the years, but the truth is that painting the exterior of your home is a great way to boost the kerb appeal and give its external appearance a proper freshen up. In this guide, we’ll cover how much this project is likely to cost you, as well as explaining all of the different factors that will affect the price you pay.
There’s lots of things for you to consider, but with external painting and decorating the chances of you doing it yourself isn’t usually one of them. Working at height is best left to the professionals, and if you don’t have the skills to properly prepare your property’s exterior masonry, you’ll find the paint may not even properly adhere.
So, read on to find out how much you’re likely to pay to get the exterior of your house painted.
How much does it cost to paint a house exterior?
We’ve averaged the price of painting the exterior of a property in the table to the right, and split it out by location. Of course, where you live will have a big impact on how much you’re likely to pay for any project, with London generally being the most expensive, which is why we’ve included a range of locations all over the UK.
Of course, the main thing that will affect the price is the size of your home. Our prices are for a medium sized home – think something like a 2-3 bedroom semi-detached property. To paint the exterior of a home like that, you should expect to pay somewhere from £1200-£1500. For a small home, or particularly a bungalow, it could be as cheap as £600-£800. However, for large homes, you could pay anywhere from £2000+, depending on how much work is involved.
What other things will affect the price?
There are a huge number of other factors that will affect the overall quote you get for your home exterior painting project – too many for us to cover here! Remember that if you’d like the tradespeople you get quotes from to explain the quote they give you, just ask them – they’ll be happy to go over why their prices are what they are.
However, in this guide we’re going to cover some of the common factors that will make a big difference to the price you’ll pay.
The type of exterior walls
One thing that will could make a difference to your quote is the finish of your exterior walls. This means whether they’re in simple brick work or have already been covered over with pebbledash or another kind of render. In general, it’ll be cheaper to paint over recently applied render or pebbledash than it will be for naked brickwork. However, if the pebbledash or render is old, it could be more expensive.
The cheapest type of external wall to paint is already painted render, as the surface should already be fairly smooth and ready to simply be painted straight over.
The quality of the walls and amount of prep work required
Another factor to consider is the amount of preparatory work that could be required before your walls are ready to be painted. This essentially boils down to the condition of your exterior walls – if your house has been recently built or the exterior walls recently repointed, your quote could be 10-20% cheaper than a property with old walls that will need a lot of work.
The amount of preparatory work will depend on the type of wall you’ve already got and the condition of it. In the worst cases, you may need to re-render the wall, or totally repoint it – this can add serious expense, so it’s worth taking the time to discuss this with the tradespeople you ask to quote.
Whether scaffolding will be required
For most exterior painting jobs, scaffolding will be required, as it’s not safe for painters to operate at height for extended periods of time without it. Scaffolding is usually factored into the prices that tradespeople quote, so needing it shouldn’t add a lot of money to the overall price.
However, if you live in a bungalow, or have some other type of access to the high areas of the exterior walls of your home, like balconies, you could save yourself at least £200 on the price of hiring and erecting scaffolding.
The size of the property
As we’ve already mentioned, the size of the property will be one of the most important things that affects the price. The simple truth is that the greater the area of exterior wall that needs to be painted, the more you’ll pay – there’s not really any way around this!
Painting soffits and fascias
A common task that goes along with painting the exterior of your home is painting the soffits and fascias. Generally speaking, it’s a good idea to get these parts of your home’s guttering system painted at the same time as the rest of the property, as the scaffolding will be up anyway.
Refreshing the paintwork on your soffits and fascias is another great way to boost the kerb appeal of your home. However, getting this done will add to the price - budget for around another £800-£1800, depending on the size of your home.
Painting windows
Similarly, if you’ve got wooden window frames, getting the exterior frames painted at the same time as the rest of the external walls of your property is a great idea. It’ll really spruce up the external appearance of your home – not only that, but it can protect your window frames as well.
Of course, it will add to the overall price. Expect to add between £300 and £600 extra, depending on the number of windows that need to be painted.
Quality of materials
Specialist masonry paint is more expensive than traditional interior paint, so expect the material costs to be higher than with internal painting and decorating projects. More expensive paint generally lasts longer and adds more weather protection to the exterior of your home, so it’s often worth using higher quality materials for a job like this.
Brands like Sandtex, Dulux Weathershield and Johnstone’s generally cost between £4-£8 per litre. Ask your decorator for advice on the paint to choose, as they will have had experience with lots of brands.
How long does it take to paint the outside of a house?
Expect it to take at least three to four days to paint the outside of an average-sized house. This is assuming that you have two decorators working on your home. If your home is bigger, with more than two storeys or more than five bedrooms, it could take up to six days.
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