Guide

How to price an exterior paint job

The short answer: measure each exterior surface separately, divide by a production rate to get labor hours, add the prep the house actually needs, multiply by your loaded hourly cost, add materials, then add margin. On the two-story house worked below that comes to about 60 labor hours, roughly $4,100 in cost and about $6,800 at a 40% gross margin.

This is the same production-rate method as our interior estimating guide, applied outside. What changes is that prep and access take a bigger share of the hours, and the house tells you more about the price than its square footage does.

Step 1 — Measure by surface

Exterior surfaces paint at very different speeds, so keep them apart:

• Siding in square feet: perimeter × wall height, plus the triangles of any gables, less large openings.
• Soffit in square feet: eave length × overhang depth.
• Trim in linear feet: fascia, window and door casing, corner boards.
• Doors, shutters and garage doors as a count.

Step 2 — Convert to hours with production rates

A production rate is how much one painter covers in an hour, one coat. Reasonable starting figures (the same ones as the interior guide), before prep:

For two coats, multiply by about 1.8 rather than 2. The second coat goes on faster than the first. As with any published rate, these are starting points. Your own rates come from comparing estimated hours against actual hours on your own jobs.

Step 3 — Price the prep separately

Outside, prep is where two houses of the same size stop costing the same. Estimate it as its own hours rather than hiding it in the rate:

• Washing: pressure-washing or hand-washing, and drying time before you can paint.
• Scraping and sanding: peeling paint, especially on south- and west-facing walls.
• Caulking and glazing: open joints, window perimeters, failed glazing.
• Priming: bare wood, repairs, and stains that will bleed through.
• Setup and access: ladders, planks or lifts for second-story walls, masking windows, protecting plants and hardscape, cleanup.

Also check for anything that is not painting at all, such as rotten fascia or siding boards. Price carpentry as a separate line so the customer can see it.

Step 4 — Work a real house

A two-story house with a 40 × 30 ft footprint, 18 ft walls to the eaves, two gable ends with an 8 ft rise, 16 windows and 2 exterior doors. Two coats on siding and soffit, one on trim, in average condition.

At a loaded labor cost of $45/hour, that is about $2,700 of labor.

For materials, assume exterior paint covers about 300 sq ft per gallon per coat on siding, which is lower than on smooth interior walls. Two coats on 2,480 sq ft is about 17 gallons, plus about 2 for trim and soffit. At $65 a gallon that is $1,235. Add primer, caulk, tape and plastic, about $165, for roughly $1,400 in materials.

Total job cost: about $4,100.

Step 5 — Add margin, not just markup

Markup and margin are not the same number. A 40% markup on $4,100 gives $5,740, which is only a 29% margin on the selling price. If you want a 40% gross margin, divide cost by 0.6: $4,100 ÷ 0.6 ≈ $6,830. The margin pays for the parts of the business no single job carries: the truck, insurance, marketing and the hours you spend estimating jobs you do not win.

What moves an exterior price the most

• Condition. Heavy peeling can double the prep hours in the example above.
• Height and access. Steep lots, third stories and landscaping against the walls all slow the work.
• Substrate. Rough cedar and stucco absorb more paint and take longer than smooth lap siding.
• Color change. A dark-to-light change may need a primer coat or a third coat.
• Weather. Check the minimum application temperature on the can, and allow for days you cannot paint.

Why not price by the square foot of the house?

A per-square-foot rate averages over houses that are nothing alike. It overcharges the easy house and loses money on the hard one. Pricing the hours line by line also gives you an answer when the customer asks why the number is what it is.