Peeling paint is a different job
Repainting a sound exterior is mostly washing, light prep and two coats. Repainting one that is peeling is a removal job first and a painting job second. The amount of loose paint that has to come off, and how carefully it has to come off, drives the price far more than the size of the house. This guide explains what a painter weighs when quoting this kind of work. We don't publish numbers; the proposal should explain its own.
How much is failing?
Painters look at the extent and the type of failure:
- Spot peeling on sills, the bottom of trim and a few boards means local scraping and priming.
- Widespread flaking across whole walls means much more scraping and sanding.
- Peeling down to bare wood suggests the paint lost adhesion, often from moisture.
- Peeling between coats, with older paint still stuck to the wood, usually means a later coat didn't bond to a glossy or chalky earlier one.
- Alligatoring, a deep crazed pattern, often needs full removal because nothing will hold to it.
Ask the painter to show you the kind of failure they see and what it means for the plan.
Getting it off: scraping, sanding, stripping
Methods range from hand scrapers and sanding to chemical strippers and infrared heat tools. Each has a speed, a mess and a risk. Power-sanding and open-flame burning raise the most dust and fumes. The painter's choice affects time, containment and cleanup. Ask which methods they'll use, where.
Find the cause before repainting
Paint that peels to bare wood usually has a reason: a leaking gutter, a missing flashing, sprinklers hitting the wall, wood touching soil, or moisture moving out from inside. Painting over the same cause gives the same failure. A careful painter will point the cause out; the fix may belong to another trade, and that's worth knowing before you pay for paint.
Repairing the wood
Long-term peeling often hides soft or split wood. Rotten sections of sill, trim or siding need cutting out and replacing, or filling with an exterior epoxy filler where damage is small. Repair is often priced as an allowance, with a rate for extra work found once scraping starts. Make sure the proposal says how that's handled.
Primer matters most here
Bare and scraped wood must be primed before topcoats. On a peeling house, that can mean priming large areas, not just spots. A bonding primer may be needed over the remaining sound paint. Priming the same day wood is exposed keeps it from absorbing moisture. Ask which primer they plan and where.
Lead on a peeling house
EPA's Renovation, Repair and Painting Rule requires anyone paid for work that disturbs painted surfaces in homes built before 1978 to hold EPA lead-safe certification and use trained workers; EPA says about three-quarters of U.S. homes built before 1978 still contain some lead-based paint.
Scraping a peeling exterior is exactly the kind of work the rule is about. If your house was built before 1978, the price should reflect plastic on the ground below each wall, containment of chips, limits on dusty methods, and careful daily cleanup. A proposal that leaves all that out should prompt a question. Ask about it at the first visit; don't wait for scraping day.
Contract points from CSLB
CSLB's consumer guide says California's Contractors State License Law gives a home improvement buyer three business days (five if the buyer is 65 or older) to cancel, and the contractor must return any money paid within 10 days of the cancellation request. Read the guide through the card below.
CSLB also says a license is generally required when the total cost of labor and materials on a project is $1,000 or more, or when the project needs a building permit or uses additional workers.
What to compare
- How much of the exterior will be scraped, sanded or stripped, and how?
- What caused the peeling, and is it being fixed?
- How is wood repair priced?
- Which primer, over how much of the house?
- What containment and cleanup are included?
Our exterior painting page and pricing guide fill in the rest.