How Often Does Your Home’s Exterior Need to Be Painted?

Most homeowners will wait until the paint on their house looks terrible before they try to repaint, but how often is too often to repaint the exterior of your house? How often should you be repainting it? The answer isn’t as simple as giving out a number to go by. It actually depends on a number of factors.

The biggest factor is going to be hiring the best painters and decorators. The environment around your house can have a huge effect on how often the paint needs to be touched up or completely redone. If you live by the sea, for instance then that corrosive salt from the water and wind can eat away at the paint and the materials underneath pretty quickly. You will probably have to repaint your house close to once a year. There are special paints you can buy that are more expensive than the regular paint that will protect your house for longer, though.

If you live in very rainy or windy areas, then that can cause weathering on the paint that requires regular repainting as well. The worse the weather conditions are, then the more often you need to repaint.

The material that your house is made of can determine how often you need to repaint as well. In temperate conditions, a wooden house needs to be repainted every five to seven years. Painted brick needs to be repainted once every 15-20 years. If the brick is not painted, then you don’t need to paint it over. You can just clean it.

If you have a house with aluminium siding, then you should expect to be repainting it every five years or so. Stucco houses will need a paint job every five or six years. If you have a cement house, then you only need to repaint once every 10-15 years. All of these estimates are based on environments where the weather is fairly mild.

The quality of the paint can determine how often to repaint as well. If you use low-quality paint, then you may need to repaint every other year or so. High-quality paint can last for five years or longer without needing to be painted over. If you use low-quality paint, then it can blister, crack, peel or fade fast, and you can have a poor-looking house after about a year of mild weather hitting that paint.

You should look for signs that your paint needs to be touched up or redone. Look for peeling, cracked, blistered or bubbling paint. If you do see bubbles in the paint, then that could mean you have a water leak in your home, but the other signs are usually indicators that it is about time to replace your paint. Faded paint should be redone as well since it is thinning out and won’t provide adequate protection for your home. If you aren’t sure if your paint needs to be redone, then consult a painting expert before you commit to repainting your home.