Renovation guides

How to paint a house exterior yourself: step by step

Quick review by a licensed contractor on Oct 7, 2026. This is not a certification. Follow product labels where they differ.

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 16

   Test for lead before a scraper touches the wall

   

   If the house was built before 1978, test before anything touches the wall: send paint chips to a lab, or use an EPA-recognized test kit exactly per its instructions, on each different layer and color — body, trim, and doors can all be different. A home swab can miss lead under newer coats, so treat a doubtful negative as untested. Photograph each result next to the spot you tested. Positive or untested means lead-safe work for the rest of this task, or an EPA lead-safe certified firm — always the firm if a child under 6 or a pregnant person lives there.

   Before any prep starts

   • Year built confirmed; if before 1978, the paint has been tested by a lab or with an EPA-recognized kit
   • If lead is present or untested, you will work lead-safe (wet, chips contained, no pressure washer) or an EPA lead-safe certified firm will do the prep
   • If a child under 6 or a pregnant person lives here and the paint is positive or untested, the prep goes to a certified firm
   • 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 16

   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 16

   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 16

   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 16

   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. On a pre-1978 house that tested positive or was not tested, do not use a pressure washer at all — hand-wash with a brush and a garden hose over plastic sheeting.

6. Step 6 of 16

   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 that tested positive or was not tested: lay 6 mil plastic on the ground at least 10 ft out from the wall, close the windows and doors nearby, mist the surface, scrape wet, and 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 16

   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 16

   Stucco: efflorescence, masonry primer, and cure time

   

   Brush off any white powdery efflorescence and find where the water comes from before you coat over it. Prime bare stucco and patches with a masonry (alkali-resistant) primer. New stucco and fresh patches need the cure time on their bag before any primer — often weeks, not days. If you choose elastomeric paint, the wall must be completely dry first.

9. Step 9 of 16

   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.

10. Step 10 of 16

    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.

11. Step 11 of 16

    Set the ladder before you climb

    

    Firm, level ground under both feet. Set the angle by the 4 to 1 rule: the base goes out 1 ft for every 4 ft of height to where it rests. If you step off onto a roof, at least 3 ft of ladder sticks up past the edge. Use a standoff so it rests on the wall, not the gutter, and keep it 10 ft from the service drop.

12. Step 12 of 16

    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.

13. Step 13 of 16

    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.

14. Step 14 of 16

    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.

15. Step 15 of 16

    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.

16. Step 16 of 16

    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 by a lab or an EPA-recognized kit; if positive or untested, the work was lead-safe or done by a certified firm, and 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

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