How Much Does It Cost to Paint a House Exterior?

Exterior painting cost by home size

Home size moves the total mainly through stories and access time. HomeAdvisor breaks projects down by home floor area: a single-story 1,000 to 1,500 sq ft home runs $1,500 to $3,500; a two-story 1,500 to 2,500 sq ft home runs $3,000 to $6,200; and a three-story 2,500 to 3,000 sq ft home runs $4,500 to $10,000 or more. HomeGuide corroborates the same story ladder from member-reported projects: single story $1,500 to $4,000, two story $3,000 to $6,000, three story $4,500 to $10,000.

When you measure the house yourself, both HomeAdvisor and HomeGuide publish $1.50 to $4.00 per square foot of paintable surface area, and both warn explicitly to measure paintable wall area, not home floor area. At the typical $2.75 point, 1,500 sq ft of paintable surface plans at about $4,125; 2,500 sq ft at about $6,875; and 3,500 sq ft at about $9,625. Doing the whole house? Pair this with our interior painting cost for a 2,000 sq ft house guide to budget both sides.

Want a project estimate for your exact home? Our exterior painting cost calculator prices your project by paintable wall area, siding type, and number of stories.

Sources: HomeAdvisor: How Much Does It Cost to Paint the Exterior of a House in [2025], HomeGuide: The 10 Best Exterior Painters Near Me (with Free Quotes)

How much does it cost to paint a stucco house?

Painting a stucco house costs about $4,500 on average in 2026, with most projects landing between $3,600 and $7,200, per HomeAdvisor's stucco painting guide. Stucco sits at the expensive end of exterior painting: all four of this guide's sources rank stucco and brick above vinyl, wood, aluminum, fiber cement, and engineered wood on cost.

The premium comes from the texture. HomeAdvisor's stucco guide explains that stucco's porous surface soaks up about 50 percent more paint than smooth siding, and the prep is heavier: pressure washing, crack repair, masonry primer, then two full coats. If the stucco itself is damaged, repairs add $200 to $2,000 or more on top of the paint job, and a 2,000 square foot stucco exterior takes 3 to 5 days of crew time.

For a size reference, Thumbtack's Xactware-based totals for priming and painting a 2,500 square foot stucco home in good condition run $2,250 to $6,056, with labor at $3,253 to $5,302 against materials of just $722 to $1,202. Labor is the dominant share on stucco, so collecting three comparable quotes matters more than the paint brand you pick.

Sources: HomeAdvisor: How Much Does It Cost to Paint the Exterior of a House in [2025], HomeGuide: The 10 Best Exterior Painters Near Me (with Free Quotes), Thumbtack: 2026 Cost to Paint a House | Exterior House Painting Costs, HomeAdvisor: How Much Does Painting a Stucco House Cost? [2025 Data], Fixr: Exterior Painting Cost | Fixr.com

Labor and material scope

Labor is the dominant share of an exterior paint job. HomeAdvisor reports labor at $1.00 to $3.50 per square foot, or $25 to $100 per hour, including priming and painting. Thumbtack's Xactware-based splits for priming and painting a 2,500 sq ft home in good condition show the same pattern: for wood or fiber cement siding, labor $3,685 to $6,023 against materials $1,143 to $1,906 and equipment $125 to $187; for stucco, labor $3,253 to $5,302 against materials $722 to $1,202.

The installed rate covers primer and paint; HomeAdvisor lists paint at $20 to $80 per gallon. Because no source publishes a national labor and material split for the per-square-foot range itself, this guide's cost record stores labor and material as zero and quotes the published splits above verbatim instead of allocating the remainder to invented categories.

Sources: HomeAdvisor: How Much Does It Cost to Paint the Exterior of a House in [2025], Thumbtack: 2026 Cost to Paint a House | Exterior House Painting Costs

How siding type changes the cost

Siding ordering is consistent across all four sources even though absolute levels differ: stucco and brick sit at the top, aluminum, vinyl, and wood lower. HomeAdvisor's all-in per-square-foot averages are vinyl $2.00, engineered wood $1.50, wood $2.00, steel $2.00, fiber cement $2.20, aluminum $2.00, stucco $2.70, brick $2.80, and stone $3.70. Thumbtack's Xactware totals for priming and painting a 2,500 sq ft home in good condition run aluminum $1,040 to $2,800, wood $1,390 to $3,741, vinyl $1,690 to $4,549, stone $1,853 to $4,989, fiber cement $1,898 to $5,111, brick $2,034 to $5,475, and stucco $2,250 to $6,056.

Stucco deserves special attention. HomeAdvisor's stucco guide averages $4,500 with an average range of $3,600 to $7,200, because the porous texture needs about 50 percent more paint than smooth siding plus heavier prep: pressure washing, crack repair, masonry primer, and two coats. Fixr's siding table follows the same ordering: metal $2.30 to $4.30, stucco $2.70 to $5.05, brick and masonry $2.90 to $5.40, and wood, vinyl, and fiber cement $3.10 to $5.80 per square foot.

Sources: HomeAdvisor: How Much Does It Cost to Paint the Exterior of a House in [2025], HomeAdvisor: How Much Does Painting a Stucco House Cost? [2025 Data], Thumbtack: 2026 Cost to Paint a House | Exterior House Painting Costs, Fixr: Exterior Painting Cost | Fixr.com

Preparation work that affects the price

Standard prep is already inside the published installed rates. HomeAdvisor itemizes prep at $0.50 to $2.50 per square foot, covering patching, repairs, paint stripping, caulking, and masking, with power washing at $240 to $400 as a line item. Fixr includes sanding, caulking, power washing, and masking in its standard scope and notes that poor-condition walls cost 60 percent or more extra.

Bigger-ticket prep falls outside the planning range. HomeAdvisor's stucco guide lists stucco repairs at $200 to $2,000 or more, and the national project record excludes siding replacement, lead paint abatement at $8 to $17 per square foot, and major rot repair. As a sanity check on labor-heavy quotes, a 2,000 sq ft stucco exterior takes 3 to 5 days. After the siding is done, decide whether to restain, resurface, or rebuild your deck next.

Sources: HomeAdvisor: How Much Does It Cost to Paint the Exterior of a House in [2025], HomeAdvisor: How Much Does Painting a Stucco House Cost? [2025 Data], Fixr: Exterior Painting Cost | Fixr.com

Worked example

Take a home where you measure 1,500 sq ft of paintable wall surface, meaning walls minus doors and windows, in average condition. Low: 1,500 x $1.50 = $2,250. Typical: 1,500 x $2.75 = $4,125. High: 1,500 x $4.00 = $6,000. The typical $4,125 lands inside the two-story project band of $3,000 to $6,200 and above the national project average of $3,178, which is the expected behavior for a mid-size home: per-square-foot math on measured area should land near the project-level bands, not far outside them. Add a repair allowance only if the walls need more than standard prep, since the base range already includes it.

Painting the deck too? Professional deck staining costs $100 to $1,465 (an $850 average) in 2026, or $2 to $4 per square foot according to Angi, so a typical 300 to 400 square foot deck lands near the middle of the house-painting project above. Our deck staining cost guide breaks down stain types, prep factors, and deck condition effects on the final price.

Sources: HomeAdvisor: How Much Does It Cost to Paint the Exterior of a House in [2025], HomeGuide: The 10 Best Exterior Painters Near Me (with Free Quotes)

Limitations

This guide's planning range rests on contractor marketplace evidence only, which is why confidence is MEDIUM rather than HIGH. HomeAdvisor surveyed more than 30,000 customers and pairs results with labor statistics and expert interviews, and HomeGuide's member-reported costs confirm the identical $1.50 to $4.00 band, but no government or manufacturer dataset publishes a national installed figure for exterior house painting.

Sources disagree at the edges. Fixr reports $2.84 to $5.28 per square foot and $6,242 to $11,617 for a 2,200 sq ft wall surface, higher than the marketplace band, likely because its reference home is larger and its cost model differs. We publish the marketplace band as the planning range and name the disagreement instead of averaging it away. The range carries no regional price multipliers and no premium-finish rates, and the verified pages show no publication dates, so currency is inferred from article vintage. Re-verify figures before signing a contract; this record is due for re-verification by 2027-03-29.

Sources: HomeAdvisor: How Much Does It Cost to Paint the Exterior of a House in [2025], HomeGuide: The 10 Best Exterior Painters Near Me (with Free Quotes), Fixr: Exterior Painting Cost | Fixr.com