Planning a Whole-House Repaint: What to Do First

Repainting a whole house is usually the largest maintenance job an owner takes on, and the order you do things in has a real effect on both the cost and the result. Here is how to plan one.

Start with condition, not with rooms

The instinct is to start with the spaces you look at most. The better starting point is a walk round the property asking one question: where is water getting in, or about to?

Anything protective comes before anything cosmetic. Bare timber on an exterior, failed sealant around joinery, peeling on an exposed elevation and a roof with spreading rust are all on a clock. A tired but sound lounge is not. If the budget only stretches so far this year, this is the distinction that decides where it goes.

Exterior before interior, usually

Two reasons. The exterior is doing a protective job and deteriorates if left, while interior paint is almost entirely cosmetic and can wait. And exterior work can cause interior damage if the building is not weathertight, so fixing the outside first protects any interior work you then do.

The exception is when you are about to do building work, a bathroom renovation or a kitchen replacement. Painting a room before the trades come through is wasted money. Do the disruptive work first and paint afterwards.

Sequencing the exterior itself

If the whole exterior cannot be done at once, it can sensibly be split by elevation. The north and west faces take the most sun and wind and deteriorate first, so they are usually the priority. A south wall in good condition can often wait a season or two.

Two cautions with splitting. Colour matching between batches applied years apart is imperfect, so split along a natural break such as a corner rather than mid-wall. And if scaffolding is needed, doing two elevations in one visit is far cheaper than two visits, because the access cost is charged twice.

The roof is worth assessing at the same time, since access is often shared. Our note on roof painting or replacement covers how to tell which you need.

Sequencing the interior

Work top down and back to front. Ceilings before walls before trim, because drips fall. Rooms at the back of the house before the ones by the door, so the crew is not walking finished work.

If you are living in the house, ask for the job to be phased so a bedroom and a bathroom are always available. Most painters will sequence it that way if they know before they start.

Do the repairs in the same visit

Rotten weatherboards, cracked plaster, failed sealant and damaged plasterboard all need fixing before paint, and they are much cheaper done while the crew, the access and the scaffolding are already there. Deferring a small repair to a later visit usually costs more than the repair.

This is also the point to sort out anything that is causing damage: blocked spouting, a downpipe discharging against the wall, garden beds built up against the cladding, or a ventilation problem producing mould inside.

Decide the colours before you get quotes

Colour affects the price more than people expect. Going from a dark colour to a light one, or the reverse, can mean an extra coat across the whole house. Some colours require a specific primer or a product formulated for depth of shade. Knowing your direction before quoting means the number you are given is the number you pay.

It is also worth deciding the whole scheme at once even if the work is phased, so the house reads as one property rather than as three separate decisions. Our note on choosing exterior colours for Wellington conditions covers the exterior side of that.

Phasing across years without wasting money

A workable three-year pattern for a full repaint on a limited budget:

• Year one: anything protective. The worst exterior elevations, all repairs, roof if needed, and sealant throughout.
• Year two: the remaining exterior elevations, plus exterior joinery and trim.
• Year three: interior, worst rooms first, phased so the house stays liveable.

Get the whole plan quoted at the start even if you only commission the first stage. It tells you the real total, and it lets the contractor specify products that will still be available and matchable in three years.

Timing the year

Exterior work wants late spring to early autumn and books out well ahead, so quotes are best organised in late winter. Interior work is unaffected by weather and is easier to schedule in the colder months, which is a natural way to split a job across a single year.

Getting a plan for your property

We are happy to quote a whole-house repaint as a staged plan rather than a single job, so you can see what needs doing now and what can wait. Get in touch, or look at the full range of painting services we provide.