How often you should paint your house depends on a few factors. Think about what part of the house, the paint quality, underlying material, if you smoke inside the house, and/or the weather conditions. In case you are planning to hire professional painters to paint your house, you’ll probably wonder how long it will take until you need their services again. With this article, I hope to answer your questions about how often you get your house painted.
I start with the interior because that’s where you spend most of your time when you are home. And there’s no doubt about the fact that some of the interior walls face more wear and tear than the others. As a result, the frequency of repaints also varies on various walls. Here’s a tentative idea of how often to paint interior walls:
· Corridors & Hallways: People walk more often through the corridors and hallways than any other portion of their homes. No wonder hallways need a repaint every 4-5 years, given all the dents, scuff marks, and wear & tear this particular portion of the house has to bear. Especially when there are kids running around or you have been moving a lot of furniture over the years.
· Bedrooms: Adult bedrooms are not used as frequently as kids’ bedrooms. As a result, adult bedrooms don’t need a repaint often, and it’s mostly done to change the color of the room. On the other hand, kids’ bedrooms are not only a bedroom; it’s their play area too! Given these conditions, the kids’ bedroom probably needs a repaint after every 2-3 years.
· Kitchen, Bathrooms, and Laundry Room: Kitchens have messy finger marks and food splatters on the walls while bathrooms have moisture. Laundry rooms, on the other hand, have detergent and sometimes, heavy chemical splatters that erode the paint surface. As a result, these areas of the house might need a fresh layer of paint more often. However, if you go for satin paints for walls and gloss paint on trims, you won’t need to paint it for at least 3-4 years.
· Living and Dining Room: Your living and dining room wouldn’t need a repaint for 5-7 years if you don’t smoke inside the house. Get these rooms painted with high-quality paint and you don’t have to touch it for years.
Unless you smoke cigarettes inside the house, all the above is an average estimate based on our 50+ years of experience in house painting.
The white ceiling gets yellow spots and moisture marks over a course of many years. It’s a slow change of colors and as a result, you may not spot them easily. The good thing about ceiling paint is that it lasts more than twice the regular paint for walls. Getting the ceiling painted along with the walls is the normal approach, but you can cut these costs by hiring professional painters. Once their work is done, your ceilings wouldn’t need a repaint for up to 10 years.
There’s no definite answer to this question because every house is built differently and has to deal with different conditions. Yet, I will try to answer it.
The frequency of repainting the exterior of a house depends a lot on the material used on the exterior. Moreover, factors like how much sunlight, rain, snow, and dust a house tolerates also affect the frequency of exterior repaint. That said, one fact remains the same, getting home exteriors repainted can be a costly affair.
Many professional painters say that the home exterior needs a repaint after every 5-10 years. The frequency of repaint also depends on the quality of work done by previous painters. To put things into perspective, exterior paints’ life varies according to different surfaces:
· Brick: Unpainted or exposed bricks need occasional cleaning, that’s it. Painted bricks, on the other hand, need a repaint every fifteen to twenty years.
· Aluminum Siding: Aluminum sidings can last up to five years with good regular cleaning.
· Stucco: stucco needs to be repainted every 5 to 10 years. It is important that the stucco has been applied professionally and the stucco has not been exposed to moist, extreme heat or sigaret smoke. In those cases you probably have to repaint your stucco earlier.
· Wood Siding: Stained wood siding needs a repaint after every 4 years, unstained wood requires a repaint every 3-7 years. Yet again, it all depends on how well you maintain the surface and to what extremities the wood has been exposed to.
· Modern Material: Modern materials are sturdier and bond better with paint than conventional materials. Take cement fibreboard, for example. Cement fiber boards don’t need a repaint for 10-15 years with good quality paint and professional work.
The exterior paint of your house does more than creating a striking presence. The following are all benefits for folks who keep the exterior of their houses maintained:
The more wear and tear your exterior faces, the more money you’ll need to spend on its upkeep. For example, a house in Arizona with wooden panels on the outside. Arizona has extremely hot summers and can have monsoon rains later in the year. If this house is painted with low-quality paint or hasn’t been repainted over the past years, the paint on the exterior might dry out in the summer. Cracks will appear, the paint starts to peel and the underlying material is now exposed. We all know what will happen as soon as that monsoon hits the Valley: stains indoors, or worse: leakages.
Repainting also requires the removal of previous paint. As a result, if there is any fault in the structure that was hidden due to the paint layer, it can be fixed or replaced accordingly. This helps you avoid accidents that a compromised structure may have caused.
As mentioned above, the upkeep and maintenance of the exterior paint and the quality of the products used are a big influence on how long your outdoor paint lasts. Environmental conditions also play a vital role in the aging process of exterior paint.
However, professional painters like us at Noble Painting AZ know a few tips to help you improve the length of your exterior paint:
· Prepping the surface before painting allows the paint to create a stronger bond.
· Make sure the paint is compatible with the material to be painted.
· Invest in good quality paint, there’s no other way around.
· For better and longer-lasting exterior paint, hire professional painters.
Sure, these tips do sound a bit costlier than the DYI approach, but it’s an investment that will help you save money in the longer run.
To really answer the question on how often you should paint your house: I’d say 5-10 years, depending on what part of the house we’re talking about. (Re)Painting your house is an investment and is always a good idea. It adds value to your house. Moreover, new colors also add a refreshing touch and change the overall appeal. Be it on the exterior or interior of your house, repainting adds to the life of the structure by keeping it protected from routine wear and tear. Good quality paints improve the life of the surfaces, enhance the looks and make your home more welcoming than before.
So, if you want to make your home more vibrant, more welcoming, and strike a memorable presence, repainting is the right choice for you.
