How much to paint house exterior?

The total cost to professionally paint the exterior of a standard home typically averages between $3,000 and $7,500, which breaks down to roughly $1.50 to $4.00 per square foot of paintable wall surface. This baseline pricing varies greatly depending on several key logistical and structural factors. The number of stories, the total square footage, and the architectural complexity of your home (such as intricate trim work, high peaks, or hard-to-reach gables) heavily dictate the total labor hours required. However, the largest determining factor in the final price is the current condition of the exterior siding. If your home features older, peeling wood siding that requires extensive manual scraping, power washing, caulking, wood patching, and full priming before any colored paint can be applied, the labor-intensive preparation work will quickly drive costs toward the higher end.