Real exterior painting prices from projects Ellwanger Painting completes every season in Bellingham and Whatcom County. Below you'll find cost per footprint square foot, home-size ranges, what drives exterior pricing up on older Bellingham homes, and real project examples with actual numbers. Also see our interior painting prices.
Exterior pricing is based on your home's footprint square footage — the ground floor area — not total paintable surface area. Story height, prep needed, siding type, trim detail, and number of colors all move projects toward the higher end or above this range.
A two-story, 100-year-old home with detailed trim and 4 colors will be at the $9+ end.Most exterior paint failures come down to skipped prep. A home with heavy scraping, bare wood, dry rot, and caulk failure needs significantly more labor before any paint goes on. That's not padding — it's the difference between a job that holds 10 years and one that peels in 2.
Homes in poor condition will land at the upper end or above the $6–$9 range.Use these ranges as a starting point. Final pricing always depends on an onsite inspection, actual surface condition, and the written scope of work in your estimate.
| Scope | Typical home size | Typical range | What's included |
|---|---|---|---|
| Exterior repaint Small house |
~800–1,050 sq ft footprint | $5,000–$7,000 | Pressure wash, full prep, 2 coats on siding & trim. |
| Exterior repaint Medium house |
~1,100–1,500 sq ft footprint | $7,000–$12,000 | More elevation, more trim, more prep time. |
| Exterior repaint Large house |
~1,500–2,500 sq ft footprint | $12,000–$22,000 | Two-story, complex elevations, extensive prep. |
| Exterior per sq ft Whole exterior system |
Priced by footprint sq ft | $6–$9+ / footprint sq ft | Masking, spraying two coats of topcoat, hand brushing and rolling trim. |
| Cedar siding Staining & finishing |
By linear or sq ft | Included in exterior range | Oil-based or linseed oil stains. Cedar requires specific primer — bare cedar cannot go straight to topcoat. |
These aren't national averages — they're real projects from homes we've painted in Bellingham. Use them as ballpark ranges, then request a walkthrough for an exact quote.
Full exterior repaint including pressure washing, spot-priming bare wood, two coats on siding and trim, and minor carpentry repairs. This project landed in the $12,000 range — large deck in the backyard added masking time, and the two-story elevation added staging time. Paint quality and access difficulty were both on the higher end.
Exterior painting in Bellingham typically costs $6–$9 per footprint square foot. A small home (800–1,050 sq ft) runs $5,000–$7,000. A medium home (1,100–1,500 sq ft) runs $7,000–$12,000. A large home (1,500–2,500 sq ft) runs $12,000–$22,000. Homes with heavy prep needs, dry rot, detailed trim, or multiple stories land at the higher end or above this range.
Footprint square footage is the ground floor area of your home — not total paintable surface area. Exterior painting is priced by footprint sq ft because it correlates with overall project scope. A 1,200 sq ft footprint home has roughly 1,200 sq ft of floor area but significantly more actual surface area when you add two stories, trim, fascia, and soffits.
Older homes require significantly more prep — more scraping of failing paint, more caulking at aged siding joints, more spot-priming of bare wood, and often dry rot repair before any topcoat goes on. Prep is where the durability of the job is determined, and older homes need far more of it than newer construction.
Usually because of what's included. A low bid that omits scraping, skips primer, and specifies one coat instead of two will fail in two to three years in Bellingham's climate — and you'll pay to do it again. Before comparing numbers, compare scopes: ask every contractor what prep is included, whether bare wood gets primed, how many coats are specified, and what their warranty covers.
A big part of the cost is the premium exterior paints we use — Benjamin Moore Aura Exterior and Sherwin-Williams Duration — run $75–$95 per gallon. A typical Bellingham exterior repaint requires 10–20 gallons depending on home size, siding type, and surface condition. That's $750–$1,900 in materials before a single hour of labor is billed. Cheaper bids often spec contractor-grade paint at $30–$45 per gallon — it covers, but it doesn't hold up to Bellingham's moisture and UV the way a premium coating does. The paint we use is part of why we can stand behind a 5-year warranty.
Exterior painting on a Bellingham home costs what it does because the majority of the job is labor-intensive prep — not paint. Scraping failing paint, sanding transitions, caulking siding joints, spot-priming bare wood, and addressing dry rot all happen before a brush touches a topcoat. Materials — premium exterior primers and finish coats rated for Pacific Northwest conditions — run $60–$95 per gallon. Add staging for two-story homes, EPA RRP requirements on pre-1978 homes, and the time to do the job correctly, and the $6–$9+ per footprint square foot range reflects what it actually takes to produce a paint job that lasts 8–12 years in Bellingham's climate. A significantly cheaper bid almost always means less prep, fewer coats, or lower-grade materials — all of which show up within a few years.
Yes. Smaller homes typically land at the higher end of the per square foot range because fixed costs — setup, staging, pressure washing, masking — get spread across less paintable surface. A 900 sq ft home costs more per square foot to paint than a 2,000 sq ft home even if the day rate and materials are identical. Complexity adds cost the same way — a small home with detailed Craftsman trim, multiple colors, and a second story can cost more per square foot than a larger plain ranch-style home.
Dry rot repair is priced separately from the painting scope and depends entirely on how much damaged wood we find. Minor rot — soft spots treated with consolidant and filled — adds a few hundred dollars. Board replacement on heavily damaged sections runs $200–$600 per section depending on size, profile, and access. On older Bellingham homes it's common to find more rot once we start scraping than was visible during the walkthrough. We document everything we find and discuss it with you before proceeding — no surprise charges after the job starts.
Yes. Each additional color adds masking time, cut-in time, and in some cases an additional coat where colors meet. A single-color exterior is the most straightforward to price. Two colors — body and trim — is standard and factored into most estimates. Three or four colors, common on detailed Victorian and Craftsman homes in Bellingham's older neighborhoods, adds $500–$1,500+ to the project depending on the complexity of the trim profiles and how many transition lines need to be cut clean.
Lead paint adds cost. Pre-1978 homes require EPA RRP certified containment, wet scraping, HEPA cleanup, and legal disposal — more time and more materials than a standard repaint. A lead home typically falls in the $9–$12+ per footprint square foot range depending on size and condition. Two-story lead homes land at the higher end. That cost is built into your estimate upfront — not added after the job starts.
Usually because of what's included. A low bid that omits scraping, skips primer, and specifies one coat instead of two will fail in two to three years in Bellingham's climate — and you'll pay to do it again. Before comparing numbers, compare scopes: ask every contractor what prep is included, whether bare wood gets primed, how many coats are specified, and what their warranty covers. A detailed written scope is the only way to compare bids on equal footing.
