Renovation guides

How to paint a house exterior yourself: step by step

Prep is 80% of it: wash, scrape, prime bare wood, caulk.

Difficulty 3 of 5 · 3 weekends · careful

Photo of your room, the look you pick, then this guide with the materials counted for your room.

Step by step

1. Step 1 of 14

   Test for lead before a scraper touches the wall

   If the house was built before 1978, buy a lead test kit and test each different layer and color you find — body, trim, and doors can all be different. Follow the kit instructions exactly and photograph the result next to the spot you tested. A positive result changes how you work for the rest of this task, and it may change who does the work.

   Before any prep starts

   • Year built confirmed; if before 1978, the paint has been tested
   • If lead is present, you will work wet, contain the chips, and have read the EPA RRP rule
   • All work is single story and below 10 ft, or the high work is going to a contractor
   • Overhead service drop located; ladders and poles will stay 10 ft away
   • Respirator, glasses, and gloves on site

2. Step 2 of 14

   Pick the weather window and the work order

   Check the label for the temperature and humidity range the paint needs, and for the recoat time. Plan to follow the shade around the house: east walls in the afternoon, west walls in the morning. Give yourself enough days that washing, drying, patching, and priming are not crammed into one.

3. Step 3 of 14

   Survey the house and write the surface map

   Walk the perimeter and write down each surface: stucco, wood siding, wood trim, metal railings, doors. Each one wants a different primer and sometimes a different paint. Mark the areas that are above 10 ft or over a roof — those get quoted out, not climbed.

4. Step 4 of 14

   Mask, cover, and protect

   Cut the plants back from the wall and tent them in plastic, lay canvas on the walkways, and tape plastic over the windows, light fixtures, the meter, and any vent. Remove house numbers, shutters, and hardware rather than cutting around them. Take down or bag the hose bibs and outlet covers.

5. Step 5 of 14

   Wash the house and let it dry

   Work bottom to top with a hose, a siding brush, and a cleaner rated for exteriors, then rinse top to bottom. If you rent a washer, keep it at low pressure, hold the wand well back, and never aim up under siding laps or roof edges. Stucco holds water — give it the dry time on the paint label, and at least a full day of sun before you paint.

6. Step 6 of 14

   Scrape and feather the failing paint

   Scrape until nothing else lifts under the blade, then feather the hard edge so the transition disappears under the new coat. On a pre-1978 house, mist the surface first, catch the chips on plastic, and vacuum with a HEPA vacuum — no dry sanding, no heat gun, no power sander. Bag the plastic and the debris when the section is done.

7. Step 7 of 14

   Repair the substrate

   Fill hairline and small stucco cracks with a patch or elastomeric filler and feather it flush, replace rotted trim boards instead of filling them, and set popped nails below the surface. Let every patch cure for the time on its label before primer. A crack you can put a pencil in, or one that steps diagonally from a window corner, is a structural question — stop and get it looked at.

8. Step 8 of 14

   Caulk the joints that should be closed

   Run a bead where trim meets stucco or siding, around window and door casings, and at pipe and cable penetrations. Tool each bead so it is concave and tight to both sides. Leave the bottom edges of lap siding, the window weep holes, and any designed drainage gap open.

9. Step 9 of 14

   Prime every bare and patched spot

   Spot-prime bare wood, bare stucco, patches, and any rust you cleaned on metal, using the primer matched to that surface. Redwood and cedar bleed tannin, so use a stain-blocking primer there per the label. Respect the primer's own recoat window — painting too soon or too late both cost you adhesion.

10. Step 10 of 14

    Cut in the top edges first

    Start under the eaves and at the fascia and work top to bottom so drips land on unfinished wall. Brush the tight lines the roller cannot reach: corners, trim edges, and around every opening. Move the ladder instead of reaching, and set the bucket where you cannot kick it.

11. Step 11 of 14

    Roll the field wall by wall, in the shade

    Load the roller fully, lay the paint on in sections about as wide as your reach, and roll back into the wet edge before it sets. Work one wall from top to bottom and finish it before you break. On stucco, push the roller into the texture and then lay it off in one direction so the pinholes fill.

12. Step 12 of 14

    Apply the second coat after the recoat time

    Wait the recoat time printed on the can — longer in cool or humid weather — then repeat the cut-in and roll in the same order. Two thin coats hold up far longer than one thick one. Look at the first coat in raking light before you recoat and fix the misses.

13. Step 13 of 14

    Paint the trim, doors, and metal last

    Trim gets its own sheen and a brush, not a roller, so the lines stay crisp against the finished body color. Take doors off the traffic path or paint them open and leave them open until they are dry to the touch. Pull the masking tape while the paint is still slightly soft so the film breaks cleanly.

14. Step 14 of 14

    Walk the house, touch up, and clean up

    Walk all four sides in the morning and again in the late afternoon — different light shows different misses. Touch up thin spots and holidays with a brush, reinstall the hardware and fixtures, and bag the masking. On a pre-1978 house, the chip plastic and the vacuum contents go out as one sealed bag, and the ground under the work gets wiped and rinsed.

    Quality check

    • Pre-1978 paint was tested and, if positive, every chip was contained and bagged
    • Whole house washed and fully dried before any coating went on
    • All loose paint scraped and edges feathered; no lifting edges left
    • Cracks and rot repaired and cured; weep gaps and siding bottoms left open
    • All bare and patched areas primed with the right primer
    • Two coats on the body, with the label's recoat time respected
    • Trim, doors, and metal finished; hardware and fixtures back on
    • No overspray or drips on windows, walks, roof, or the neighbor's property

Draft guide written from standard practice, not yet reviewed by a licensed pro. Follow product labels where they differ.

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