How to measure a house for painting
Painters price the walls, so start there and not with the floor area on your deed. Walk round the house with a long tape for the length and width. For the height, measure from the foundation to the eaves, or count the courses of siding and multiply. Leave doors and windows in, since Homewyse's rate is stated on the finished surface and the openings together.
Then look hard at the condition of the paint. Peeling, bare wood or rot means more prep, and prep is what makes up much of a good quote. No source we could read puts a number on siding type or prep level, so we do not pretend to. Think of the low end of the range for a tidy house in good shape, and the high end for anything needing real work or hard to reach.
Age matters too. In a house built before 1978, EPA's rule says anyone paid to disturb painted surfaces must be certified in lead-safe work practices. That usually adds cost, and these ranges do not include it.
A worked example
Here is a single-storey 40 by 25 foot house, 9 feet to the eaves, with two gables at 5 in 12 and two coats. These lines come from the same formula the calculator above runs.
40 by 25 ft house, two coats
- Walls: 2 × (40 + 25) × 9 = 1170 sq ft
- Two gables: 130 sq ft
- Total: 1300 sq ft
- Range: $2,900 to $5,700
- Paint: 10.4 gallons, so 11 to buy
The range is broad because estimates differ. Inch Calculator's page gives $2,000 to $5,000 for a single storey, and its own update date suggests it is older than its heading. The paint calculator handles rooms inside, and if the siding is past saving, the siding calculator sizes a replacement.
Exterior painting cost by house size
All with two gables at 5 in 12, at the baseline region. Each two-storey house has the footprint of a ranch above it, and the wall area is what jumps, so a taller house costs much more to paint than its floor area suggests.
| House | Wall area | Low | High | Gallons, 2 coats |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ranch, 1,000 sq ft of floor | 1300 sq ft | $2,900 | $5,700 | 11 |
| Ranch, 1,500 sq ft of floor | 1628 sq ft | $3,600 | $7,100 | 14 |
| Ranch, 2,000 sq ft of floor | 1953 sq ft | $4,300 | $8,500 | 16 |
| Two storeys, 2,000 sq ft of floor | 2470 sq ft | $5,400 | $10,800 | 20 |
| Two storeys, 3,000 sq ft of floor | 3068 sq ft | $6,700 | $13,400 | 25 |
Mistakes that make a quote misleading
- Floor area for wall area. A rate per square foot of floor and one per square foot of wall are very different, and they produce very different totals.
- Assuming prep is included. Ask. A cheap quote often means a quick wash and paint, on a house that needed scraping.
- The top coverage figure on rough siding. Behr's range runs from 250 to 400, and rough siding will not see the top of it.
- Counting coats once. Coverage is per coat, so two coats take twice the gallons.
- Ignoring lead. A house built before 1978 may need certified work, so check the painter's certification.
Questions
How much does it cost to paint a house exterior?
About $2.20 to $4.37 per square foot of wall on Homewyse's estimate. A single-storey 40 by 25 foot house has about 1,300 square feet of wall with its gables, which is about $2,900 to $5,700. Inch Calculator gives $2,000 to $12,000 across all jobs.
What is the cost to paint a house exterior per square foot?
About $2.20 to $4.37 per square foot of wall, with openings counted, by Homewyse. That is wall area and not floor area. A quote per square foot of floor is a different number, so ask which one you are seeing.
How much paint for a house exterior?
About 6 gallons per coat for 1,500 square feet of wall at 250 square feet a gallon, as Inch Calculator's example shows, so 12 gallons for two coats. Rough siding takes more, so use the figure on your can.
How much does it cost to paint a house exterior yourself?
Mostly the paint, plus scaffolding or ladders. Twelve gallons at $40 each is $480, which Inch Calculator counts for 1,500 square feet in paint and primer. Add brushes, rollers, sprayer rental and your own time, and the prep is the larger part.
Does my home's age change the cost?
Yes, for a house built before 1978. EPA's rule says anyone paid to disturb painted surfaces in those homes must be certified in lead-safe work practices. That adds time and cost, which these ranges do not include. Ask your painter for proof of certification.
What is the labor cost to paint a house exterior?
Painters charge up to about $60 an hour on Inch Calculator's figures, and most of the job's cost is labor and prep. The range here already includes it. Only a quote can tell you what a crew will charge for your house.
This exterior painting cost is a planning range from a contractor estimating site, and prices vary by region, painter and access. Scaffolding, repairing rot and any permits or disposal are not counted. In an older home, paid painters must follow EPA's lead rules, which adds cost. Only a written quote from a licensed painter is binding.
Sources and review
- Cost to paint a house exterior, Homewyse, 2026.
- Cost to paint a home, Inch Calculator, updated 2023, read November 2026.
- Marquee Exterior environmental declaration, Behr, no date shown, read November 2026.
- Renovation, Repair and Painting Program, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, no date shown, read November 2026.
Checked in November 2026. Spotted a wrong number? Report it and it goes in the corrections log.
How this is calculated
Every figure below is read from the code that produces the answer, so what is written here is what the calculator ran. The constants were last checked against their sources in November 2026.
The arithmetic
Wall area
Area = 2 × (Length + Width) × Height + Gables
- Gables
- Half of the gable's width times its rise, for each
Worked through: 2 × (40 + 25) × 9 = 1170 sq ft, before gables
Range
Cost = Area × Rate × Region
- Rate
- $2.20 to $4.37 per square foot, on Homewyse's estimate
Worked through: 2000 × 2.2 = 4400
Gallons
Gallons = Area × Coats ÷ Coverage
- Coverage
- Square feet a gallon covers per coat
Worked through: 1500 × 2 ÷ 250 = 12 gal
The constants, and where they come from
COST_PER_SQ_FT
Modelled from published dataInstalled cost per square foot of wall, low and high
- 0
- 2.2
- 1
- 4.37
Applies to: United States, a contractor estimating site, on wall area with openings counted
Source: Cost to paint a house exterior, Homewyse, published 2026-05, read 2026-11.
Homewyse's May 2026 estimate, the freshest we could read. Inch Calculator gives $2,000 to $12,000 for a whole job, and Angi's page refused our request. No source we could read splits this by siding type or prep, so those are not offered.
STARTING_COVERAGE
Published range, narrowedStarting coverage, in square feet per gallon per coat
Applies to: One paint on smooth siding. Rough siding covers less
Source: Marquee Exterior environmental declaration, Behr, no date on the page, read 2026-11.
Also from: Cost to paint a home, Inch Calculator, published 2023-09, read 2026-11.
Behr's environmental declaration reports film thickness at both 250 and 400 square feet a gallon, and Inch Calculator's printed gallons fit 250. Rough siding will come in below this, and we read no maker's figure for that.
PROJECT_MULTIPLIER
ModelledMultiplier by United States region, applied to this page's modelled rates
- northeast
- 1.1
- southeast
- 0.94
- midwest
- 0.97
- southwest
- 1
- west
- 1.13
Applies to: United States, five broad regions
No published figure exists for this. It is derived, and the derivation is below rather than a citation to something that does not say it. Last checked in November 2026.
The site's own model, shared across cost calculators. No published series was found. Painting is mostly labor, so your region may vary more than this.
INCHES_OF_RUN
DefinitionalThe run a pitch is stated against, in inches
Applies to: Definitional, everywhere
True by definition, so there is nothing to cite. The derivation is below.
A pitch of 6 in 12 means 6 inches of rise over 12 inches of run, by the way the trade writes it.
What the labels mean
- Modelled from published data:
- derived rather than measured, calibrated against the source named beside it.
- Published range, narrowed:
- a source publishes a range and this calculator uses a representative value from it.
- Modelled:
- derived rather than measured, and the derivation is shown.
- Definitional:
- true by definition, like the number of inches in a foot, so there is nothing to cite.
If a figure here looks wrong, it may be. Tell us what you found and we will check it against the source and publish a correction if it needs one. How constants are chosen and how often they are reviewed is set out in our methodology.
How to use the exterior house painting cost calculator
- 1
Measure the outside of the house
- 2
Measure the height to the eaves
- 3
Choose your coats and your region
- 4
Read the range, and the gallons
- 5
Get at least three written quotes for the same scope
What this calculator assumes
Every estimate here rests on the assumptions below. Where your job differs from one of them, the figure will differ too.
- Priced on wall area with openings left in, as Homewyse states it
- A rectangular house, with gables as true triangles
- No splits for siding type or prep, because no source we could read gives them
- Normal access, with no scaffolding or rot repair
Pro tips
- Ask each painter how many coats, and of what, so that quotes can be compared
- Ask how much of the quote is prep, as that is what makes paint last
- Keep a little paint for touch-ups, labelled with the color and the date