Exterior painting
Covering Harrogate, Leeds, York, Bradford and across North & West Yorkshire
22 years’ experience
Long enough to have seen most versions of a job before.
Public liability insured
Backed by a written guarantee on every job — ask when you quote.
Free, no-obligation quotes
We look at the job and give you a price. Nothing to pay if you don’t go ahead.
Why it matters
Exterior paint is preparation with a coat of colour on top. The paint is rarely what fails — what fails is what was underneath it when it went on.
What the job involves
- Wash the elevation down and let it dry properly, because painting over algae seals it in and it grows through.
- Cut out and make good the cracks, the blown render and the rotten timber before anything is opened.
- Treat and prime the bare and the repaired areas — this is the coat that does the work.
- Two coats of a breathable masonry system, cut in properly at the details.
- Woodwork prepared, primed, undercoated and finished separately.
What it costs
£1,500–£4,500 for a typical three-bedroom house is the typical UK range for this work — scaffold and significant repair work are additional. That is a guide to the market, not a quote: yours is free, fixed before we start, and based on your actual property.
What moves the price:
- elevation area, height, and how much of it needs scaffold or tower access
- how much repair the surface needs before painting — usually the largest variable
- the number of detail elements: windows, barge boards, doors, rainwater goods
- the system specified, and whether the wall needs a breathable one
When to do it
April to September. Masonry paint needs surface temperatures above about 8°C and a dry wall to go onto, and a wall that has taken a soaking needs days rather than hours to dry out. Painting late in the year is how you get a finish that lifts in the first frost.
Different roofs and walls need different handling
Render. Rendered elevations want a breathable masonry system — a sealed film on render traps moisture and blows the paint off in sheets.
Millstone grit. Painting over sound gritstone is a decision worth taking slowly: it is close to irreversible and it changes how the wall handles moisture.
Brick. Painted brick needs a breathable system and a genuine commitment, because getting paint off brick afterwards is difficult and rarely clean.
How much does exterior painting cost? goes into the numbers and the reasoning in more detail.
Where we do it
We work out of Harrogate across North and West Yorkshire. Every town below has its own page for this service:
Related work
rendering, fascias and soffits and pressure washing are the jobs most often booked alongside this one.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
How often should a house be repainted?
Masonry roughly every eight to twelve years, exterior woodwork every four to six. South and west elevations take the weather here and will go first, so it is normal for one side of a house to want doing well before the others.
What type of paint is best for exterior walls?
A breathable masonry paint on almost any wall in this part of Yorkshire. Solid stone and brick walls need to let moisture out, and a sealed film traps it, blows the paint and pushes damp inside. On render, match the system to the render — silicone-based over silicone.
When should you not do exterior painting?
Below about 8°C, in the rain, on a wall that has not dried out, or in strong direct sun on a hot day — which dries the film before it has levelled. In practice that means April to September here, and it means waiting after heavy rain rather than starting on a damp wall.
Can I just paint over old exterior paint?
Only if the existing coat is sound and compatible. Wash it, and test whether it is stable — if it chalks off on your hand or lifts with tape, a new coat will take it with it. Painting a modern breathable paint over an old sealed one is a common cause of early failure.
For exterior work across Harrogate and Yorkshire, please call 07788 585240