Exterior House Painting Cost (2026) — Typical US Range

Painting the body and trim of a common US single-family house — one story, or a straightforward two stories, with a wash, a scrape, caulk, primer on bare wood, and two coats of a standard exterior paint, on siding that is still sound — often clusters around $3,000–$7,000. The wider national spread, about $1,500–$18,000, covers a small one-story repaint with light prep at the low end and a taller or more cut-up house, heavy scraping, many colors, or carpentry at failed trim at the high end. Lead-safe work on a pre-1978 house, a full vinyl re-side, or new windows can clear that spread. These are typical planning ranges, not a survey and not a quote.

Exterior paint is a maintenance coat on a wall you are keeping. It is not a new skin. If the bid is really “cover the failing siding so we can wait,” the number on this page will not describe the job. Price a cladding replacement on the vinyl siding guide when the boards or the panels are the problem.

The gallons are not the job. Paint for a common house is often a few hundred dollars of material, and a premium line can push that material toward about $1,000. The bid is the wash, the scrape, the masking, the ladder or the lift, and the time to keep paint off walks, plants, and glass. Living-area square footage is also the wrong thing to multiply. A one-story ranch and a two-story house with the same floor plan are not the same wall. Price the surfaces you can walk, not a rate you saw on a forum.

The rows below are ways to read one job. They are not added together. A house of about 2,000 square feet is one of the size rows. A two-story version of that house sits toward the top of that row, and the two-story row is another way to read a common house of that height. Pick one reading. Exterior painting cost per square foot is a cross-check on paintable wall, not a second bill on top of the size row. The siding rows are that same common-house job on wood, vinyl, stucco, or brick.

Scope	Typical planning range
About 1,000 sq ft of living area	$2,000–$4,500
About 1,500 sq ft of living area	$2,500–$5,500
About 2,000 sq ft of living area	$3,000–$7,000
About 2,500 sq ft of living area	$4,000–$8,500
About 3,000 sq ft of living area	$5,000–$11,000
One story	$2,500–$5,500
Two stories	$4,000–$9,000
Paintable wall, ordinary prep	$1.50–$3.50 per sq ft
Wood siding	$3,000–$7,000
Vinyl siding, panels still sound	$2,500–$6,000
Stucco	$3,500–$8,000
Brick	$4,000–$9,000

A one-story house of about 1,000 square feet, with paint that is dirty more than it is failing, sits toward the floor of the $2,000–$4,500 row. Plan about $2,000–$3,000 when the crew can work from the ground and the scrape is spots, not whole walls. One accessible elevation on that house is the floor of the wider spread, near $1,500. It is not a whole-house two-coat job someone discounted.

A house of about 1,500 square feet is the $2,500–$5,500 row. One story, sound wood, and a wash with light scraping sit toward $2,500–$4,000. The same floor plan in two stories sits toward the top of the row because the wall is taller.

A house of about 2,000 square feet is the typical band itself, $3,000–$7,000. Read a one-story ranch with sound wood and ordinary prep toward $3,000–$5,000. Read a two-story house with the same prep toward $5,000–$7,000: more wall, more trim, and ladders. The two-story row, $4,000–$9,000, describes that second house from the height side. Use the size row or the story row. Adding them double-counts the job.

A house of about 2,500 square feet is $4,000–$8,500. Ordinary prep on two stories often sits around $6,000–$8,500, which can leave the typical band and still sit inside the wider spread. A house of about 3,000 square feet is $5,000–$11,000. Heavy peeling on that two-story house is the top of the row. Add a lift at a tall gable and a real run of rotten trim, and the same house can move toward the top of the wider spread, about $18,000. A three-story wall is already outside the two-story row.

Exterior painting cost per square foot, for a wash, a spot scrape, caulk, primer on bare wood, and two coats, is typically about $1.50–$3.50 of paintable wall. Measured wall of about 2,000 square feet at that rate is $3,000–$7,000, which is why the rate and the typical band describe the same common house. Windows and doors come out of the count. Gables, a garage wall, and a lot of trim go in. If the measure comes back near 3,000 square feet of wall, the same rate is about $4,500–$10,500. Use that measured-wall figure when you have it. The living-area row is the stand-in when you do not. Multiplying the home’s living area by $3.50 will look precise and will miss a ranch with less wall and a tall house with more.

Wood lap or wood clapboard is the planning job, $3,000–$7,000 on a common house, because bare wood needs primer and loose paint needs a scrape. Sound vinyl that can take a bonding primer and a paint made for vinyl is often $2,500–$6,000: less scraping when the panels are intact, and more care about adhesion. A large color change can sit with the wood row instead. A very dark color can heat vinyl enough to warp it, so the color belongs in the bid. Brittle, cracked, or chalked panels are a re-side, not this row. Stucco on a common house is often $3,500–$8,000. The texture holds more paint, and cracks get patched before the coat. An elastomeric coating is a different product and can leave that row. Brick, with a masonry coating on sound brick, is often $4,000–$9,000. Paint on brick is hard to undo, and it can trap moisture if the wall was meant to dry. Ask whether the brick should be painted at all before you compare it with the wood row.

What the range includes

The typical band assumes an existing single-family house, body and trim painted, one layer of sound siding, a wash, scraping and sanding where the paint is loose, caulk at gaps that are already dry, primer on bare wood, and two coats of a standard exterior acrylic. It includes ordinary masking of windows and doors, protection of walks and foundation plants, and ground a crew can reach with ladders. An easy one-story house in a lower-cost area sits toward the floor of the typical band. A two-story house, a lot of trim, or a color change that needs another coat sits at the top of that band and leaves it when the prep is heavy.

Doors, shutters, and a garage door are included only when the bid names them. Painting a garage door is not a new garage door. Soffit and fascia are often painted with the trim. Replacing them is not. New gutters on that fascia are the gutter installation guide. An entry door painted while the crew is already there is a small line. A separate trip to paint one door is not a whole-house price.

The floor of the national spread, near $1,500, is usually one accessible elevation, or a very small one-story house with paint that is dirty more than it is failing. The top, toward $18,000, is where a large or tall house, extensive scraping, a hard color change, decorative trim, and a lift usually land together. Lead-safe containment, widespread rot, and new siding can clear that top. Treat a number above it as a different scope and ask which driver caused it.

None of the bands include a vinyl re-side, new windows, a roof, a deck, a fence, or the rooms inside. Interior walls, ceilings, and trim are the interior painting guide. If the same season includes new windows, paint after the openings are in so you are not paying to cut in around trim that is about to be thrown away. If the wall is soft, stop painting and price the cladding. Paint will not dry a wet wall. A deck and a fence are different surfaces. A bid that says “the outside” without listing them will not match a bid that is only the siding and the trim.

Ordinary prep is in the rows. That means a wash, scraping where the paint is already loose, caulk at joints that have opened and dried, and primer on wood the scrape left bare. Caulk that has failed along a run of windows is part of that prep. Recaulking every joint on a house, or scraping paint that is loose across most of the walls, takes longer than the gallons suggest and is how a common house leaves the typical band. Spot rot is carpentry, then paint. Replacing a limited run of rotten trim, then priming the new wood, is often a few hundred dollars to about $2,000 as its own line. It is not already inside the $3,000–$7,000. Soft trim around the house, or sheathing that has to come off, is no longer a paint bid.

Houses built before 1978 may have lead in older paint layers. The typical band assumes ordinary prep, not lead-safe containment. Disturbing that paint — sanding, scraping, or heat — is a different scope. This page does not put a dollar figure on lead-safe work, because how much paint you disturb, and the rules where you live, change the bid. It can leave the typical band, and a whole house that has to be contained can clear the wider spread. Ask the painter what they will do if the paint is lead-based. Treat a bid that says “we just scrape it” on an older house as incomplete.

Standard exterior acrylic, two coats, is the paint in every row above. A better gallon moves the material line. On a common house that line is still often a few hundred dollars, sometimes near $1,000 for a premium product, against a bid of several thousand. Ask which product, how many coats, and whether primer on bare wood is included. A one-coat bid on chalked paint is not comparable to a wash, scrape, prime, and two coats. The sheen should match on a wall you are only partly repainting, or the patch will show.

Season is about whether the product can cure, and region is about labor. Exterior acrylic wants a clean, dry wall and a day that stays inside the temperature on the can: a mild stretch, not a freeze and not a wall in full afternoon sun. In much of the country those days cluster in late spring and early fall, which is when crews are booked. A winter bid in a cold climate is usually a wait. Heat and afternoon storms in a hot climate change the hours and can stretch the job. The dollar effect you can plan for is place. The same scope in a lower-cost area sits toward the floor of the row. The same scope in a high-labor city sits toward the top and can leave it. These ranges do not subtract a coupon.

As a cross-check, not a bid: ask whether the price is one coat or two, whether primer is included on bare wood, and which of the rows above the crew thinks your house is. A 2,000-square-foot two-story with sound wood is the typical band, toward the top. A measured wall at $1.50–$3.50 a square foot should land near that same number. If the two readings are far apart, the bid is either a different scope or the wrong wall measurement.

What moves the price

Driver	How it changes the bid
Stories and height	A one-story house the crew can walk is the $2,500–$5,500 row. A common two-story house is $4,000–$9,000. Gables, a steep grade, and a third story add a lift and leave that row.
House size	More wall is more time. The living-area rows are the whole job when you know the floor area and not the wall. A 2,000-square-foot house is $3,000–$7,000. A 3,000-square-foot house is $5,000–$11,000.
Prep	Dirty but intact paint is inside the rows. Loose paint across the walls, stain that bleeds, or bare wood that needs primer takes longer than the gallons suggest and pushes a common house out of the typical band.
Siding	Wood is the typical band. Sound vinyl is often $2,500–$6,000. Stucco is often $3,500–$8,000. Brick is often $4,000–$9,000. Failing panels are a siding project.
Paint	Two coats of a standard exterior acrylic are assumed. A premium gallon moves a few hundred dollars. A large color change can take another coat and leave the row.
Trim and doors	Body, soffit, fascia, and window trim are in the rows. Shutters, entry doors, and the garage door are in the number only when the bid names them.
Carpentry	Sound wood is assumed. A short run of rotten trim is often a few hundred dollars to about $2,000 on its own line. Soft sills and open joints are carpentry, then paint.
Older paint	Ordinary prep is in the band. On a house built before 1978, lead-safe work, when scraping or sanding will disturb older layers, is a different scope.
Season and region	The rows are national. A lower-cost area sits toward the floor of the same scope. A high-labor city sits toward the top. The wall still has to be dry, in the temperature the can allows.
Access	Open yards are the planning job. Tight side yards, pools, new landscaping, and cars that cannot be moved add masking and time.

If you are also replacing windows or the garage door, sequence the work. Painters should not caulk a flange that the window crew is about to pull, and a new door should not arrive after the trim around the opening has been finished. If a deck ledger lands on the wall, say so. The paint crew should not finish a board the deck crew is about to open.

Paint on a failing wall is the wrong purchase. If the vinyl is brittle or the wood is split across the elevation, read the vinyl siding guide before you buy a color. If water stains start at the roof edge, price the roof before you pay to repaint the stain. If a fence is part of what you want painted, write it into the same conversation so it is not assumed to be free.

DIY or hire

A full two-story repaint is a hire. Ladders at a gable, spraying without control, and scraping a wall you cannot see up close are how people get hurt and how windows get ruined. The savings is not worth a fall or a coat that peels because the wall was never washed.

A careful owner can paint a one-story wall they can reach from the ground when the siding is sound, the loose paint is limited, and they are willing to wash, scrape, caulk, and prime before the finish coat. Match the sheen the last coat used if you are only doing one elevation, or the patch will show. Brush the edges even if you roll the field. Mask glass, walks, and plants. Spraying without masking is how windows and a neighbor’s car get painted.

Hire the whole job if the house is two stories, if the paint is failing across most of the wall, if the wood is soft, or if the house was built before 1978 and sanding or scraping could disturb lead paint. Those are not weekend techniques. Renting a sprayer does not remove the wash or the scrape.

Repair or replace

Repaint when the cladding is intact. Chalk, fade, a few peeling spots you can scrape to a firm edge, and dried-out caulk are a paint job. That is the typical band on this page. A single dirty elevation with almost no scraping is what the floor of the wider spread is for.

Replace the siding, or the trim, when the material itself has failed: boards that are split or cupped, vinyl that is brittle, stucco that is loose across the wall, or paint that keeps peeling because the wall behind it is wet. New paint on that surface is a one-season coat. If you can push a screwdriver into the trim, the trim is the project and the paint comes after. Compared with a vinyl re-side, a sound-wall repaint is the smaller check. It is the expensive choice only when you pay it twice because the wall was already done.

A stain under a window or at the soffit is not automatically a painting problem. If the water starts at the roof, price the roof first. If the opening is rotten, price the window. Paint over either leak will fail in the same place.

How to use this number

Ask for bids that state the surfaces included, the number of coats, whether the price includes washing, scraping, caulk, and primer, which products they will use, what happens if they find rot, whether doors, soffit, and the garage door are in the number, and what they will do on a house built before 1978. Compare a sound one-story or straightforward two-story house, prepped and painted with two coats, with the typical band of $3,000–$7,000. Compare a 2,000-square-foot house with that same band. Compare a common two-story house with $4,000–$9,000. Compare a measured wall with $1.50–$3.50 a square foot. Compare wood, sound vinyl, stucco, and brick with their own rows, and keep a siding replacement as its own proposal if the wall is the real question.

A very low bid on a whole-house repaint is a reason to ask whether it is one coat on unwashed siding, not a reason to celebrate. A high bid should point at stories, scraping, lead-safe work, or rotten trim. Two or three local bids on the same surfaces and the same prep are the number that matters. How this site sets the band is explained on the methodology page.