How much to charge to paint a house exterior
Exterior repaints are won or lost on prep, not paint. The spray time is predictable; the scraping, priming and masking are where the hours hide.
Below: the published wage for this work, why your billing rate has to be well above it, how this job is actually priced, and what moves the number. Put your own rate into the generator and you get a real itemized estimate built on it.
Generate this estimate now
Describe the job in plain words. No email needed to see your first estimate — about fifteen seconds for a small job, a little longer for a big one.
What you get — see the format first
A complete estimate you can send to the customer, built from the rate you enter:
| Description | Qty | Unit | Unit price | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labor — itemized by task | hrs | hour | your rate | — |
| Materials — with your markup applied | qty | ea / sq ft | cost + markup | — |
| Permits, disposal, access | — | — | — | — |
Plus a plain-English scope summary, assumptions (what had to be guessed), exclusions (what you are not doing — the section that prevents most change-order arguments), and a validity period. Printable, or send the link.
Every figure comes from the rate and markup you supply. We never fill in a market price for you.
How exterior house painting is priced
Most exterior work is priced off the surface area of the siding — wall square footage rather than floor area — with body, trim and accent priced at different rates because they run at very different production speeds. Trim is slow, detailed, brush-and-roll work and often costs more per square foot than the entire body of the house. Prep is estimated separately in crew-hours and should never be folded into a per-square-foot number, because it is the line that varies most between two houses of identical size.
What the labor actually costs
$23.75/hour — US median wage for painters, construction and maintenance, May 2025 ($49,400/year).
That is a wage, not your billing rate. It excludes payroll burden, insurance, the hours you spend driving and quoting, overhead and profit. Billing at or near it means working the job for free once those land — which is where underpricing starts. What your multiplier should be depends on your business, so put the rate you actually bill into the generator and every line prices from your number.
Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook — national median, May 2025. Wages vary widely by metro.
What moves the number
- Height and number of stories — second-storey work means ladders or staging, and everything slows down
- Substrate condition: chalking, peeling or failed caulk can double prep hours
- How much scraping, sanding and spot-priming the siding actually needs
- Substrate type — bare wood drinks primer, fibre cement and stucco behave differently again
- Number of colours; every extra colour is another cut-in, another mask, another cleanup
- Masking load: windows, brick, roofing, landscaping and vehicles all have to be protected
- Access — tight side yards, slopes, decks and fences that block ladder placement
How exterior house painting gets underpriced
- Quoting from floor area instead of measured wall surface, which understates tall or complex elevations
- Bundling prep into the square-foot rate, so a house needing heavy scraping earns the same as one needing none
- Forgetting that trim, soffit, fascia and shutters are priced per linear foot or per unit, not swept into the body rate
- Leaving out the walk-through and touch-up day, which is real labour on every exterior job
- No weather clause, so lost days come out of your margin instead of the schedule
Related guides
How much to charge
interior painting · deck staining · cabinet painting · garage floor epoxy · driveway sealing
Estimate templates by trade
painting · asphalt paving · window installation · deck building · gutter installation · insulation · tile installation · bathroom remodel
How to estimate
How to write a contractor estimate · Estimate vs quote vs bid — and which one you should send · What to include in a contractor estimate · How to price a job as a contractor · Should you charge for estimates? · How to follow up on an estimate · How to handle change orders · Estimate vs invoice: what's the difference? · How to raise your prices as a contractor