How Much Does It Cost to Paint a House?

A fresh coat of paint is only one part of what a full repaint pays for. The price covers cleaning each surface as its condition calls for, repairs, protecting the house, priming where the paint needs a base, finishing the trim and doors, and a final walkthrough that settles any touch-ups on the punch list.

That’s why the question has a range for an answer. A house isn’t priced by the square foot: the price follows the surfaces and their condition, and only decks, fences and floors go by the foot. The Houston numbers:

• Interior repaint: begins around $1,000, the residential project minimum.
• Full exterior repaint: starts around $3,500. Wood rot and major repairs need an inspection first.
• Kitchen cabinets: $3,000 to $5,000 and up.
• Decks, fences and epoxy floors: priced by the foot. Decks run $2.50 to $8 or more per square foot, a 6-foot fence stained on one side $4 to $7 per linear foot, and an epoxy floor around $7 per square foot.
• The written price: fixed for the agreed scope, with a change order for anything outside it.

Houston painting prices, job by job

These are Ray’s own starting ranges for Houston houses, and each is a budget range, not a quote. Maryland prices differ, so a Maryland budget comes after Rise sees photos of the job.

The $1,000 minimum is a floor for every residential project: a small job whose real price lands under it pays the minimum, and any other job is priced as written.

The number that counts is the one written down for your house.

What does an exterior repaint cost?

Exterior painting on a full repaint starts around $3,500 in Houston, and the finished number depends on the house: its size, the stories, the siding, the trim, the doors and shutters, and the condition of the exterior paint already on it. Failing coatings, caulking and prep add to the list, and so does access when an elevation needs a lift. Rise is Aerial Lift Certified for that work.

Cleaning comes first where the surface needs it, and condition sets the method: pressure washing or another appropriate cleaning method. Rotten wood is replaced before painting. In Houston Ray pays especially close attention to the fascia and soffit, the sun-exposed elevations, the trim and anything affected by moisture, so the most weathered areas on the exterior of a house are found at the inspection, before the price is written.

Wood rot and major repairs are marked “inspection required” instead of guessed at, because the damage can’t be priced until someone has looked. The scope of exterior house painting in Houston runs from cleaning to trim and doors.

What does an interior repaint cost?

Interior painting begins around $1,000 in Houston, which is also the residential project minimum. From there the price climbs with the work in each room: its type and size, the walls, the ceilings, the trim and the doors. Ceiling height changes it, and so does whether the home interior is occupied or vacant.

Color moves the number too. Going from one pale gray to another is a small change, and a deep red to a light neutral is a bigger one. A dark accent wall beside white walls adds work the white walls don’t need.

Prep comes before color. Patching holes and cracks is part of the job, and drywall repair is done in-house as prep that leads into painting. Sound interior paint takes less preparation than paint that’s peeling. The interior house painting in Houston scope runs from walls and ceilings to trim and doors.

How much does it cost to paint a 2,000 square foot house?

A 2,000 square foot house doesn’t have one price, because square footage measures the floor and painters price what’s on it. A 12 by 12 bedroom has 144 square feet of floor and, with 8-foot ceilings, about 384 square feet of wall before the windows and doors come off. The ceiling adds another 144, before any trim or doors.

Two houses of the same size can price far apart. One is a single story with sound paint. The other has two stories, a vaulted entry and walls that need patching first.

So a cost per square foot for a whole house reads as a guess. Each estimate adds up the surfaces in the agreed scope, the repairs they need first and how hard they are to reach. Your rooms and surfaces go into the painting cost calculator, which returns a ballpark range before anyone visits.

What moves a painting quote up or down

These move a painting quote, and on a Houston job Ray checks each one on site:

• Surfaces and size: every wall, ceiling, trim run and door in the scope counts, and so does every elevation outside.
• Condition and prep: failing coatings, patching, caulking and sanding come before the new paint.
• Stories and height: more stories and higher ceilings mean more reach, and a hard-to-reach elevation can need a lift.
• Siding and substrate: stucco, brick and wood each take their own prep and their own product.
• Type of paint: the paint line is matched to the surface, and the type changes the material cost.

Painters’ pay differs by city, too. Painters in the Houston area earn a median of $22.18 an hour, against $23.75 across the United States (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025). That figure is a painter’s wage, which is only one part of a contractor’s price, and it’s one more reason a national average cost to paint a house doesn’t carry straight over to Houston.

Does an older Houston house cost more to paint?

An older Houston house costs more to paint when the inspection finds more to fix: failing coatings, walls that need patching, wood that needs replacing. Age alone doesn’t set the price, but it changes what the inspection looks for.

Census Bureau estimates put 43.7% of the housing units in the city of Houston at built before 1980: 467,336 of 1,070,556 (American Community Survey, 2024 1-year). That window includes every home built before 1978, the cutoff for the EPA’s lead rule.

Under the EPA’s Renovation, Repair and Painting rule, a firm paid to disturb paint in a home built before 1978 has to be EPA-certified and use lead-safe work practices (EPA, updated June 17, 2026). Rise and Prime is an EPA Lead-Safe Certified Firm. Lead abatement is a separate EPA program with its own certification, and a repaint isn’t abatement.

Will the price change after you sign?

A Rise and Prime painting price is fixed for the agreed scope of work once the proposal is written. On most residential projects that estimate is done on the spot during the walkthrough, which in Houston is Ray’s own, and on larger or more complex jobs the proposal may be sent afterward. Adding the garage after that is outside the scope and is handled as a change order or an add-on.

At the final walkthrough, Rise goes through the finished work with you and handles any punch-list items and touch-ups before the project closes out.

Comparing two painting quotes

When two professional painters quote the same house, the numbers only compare if the scope is the same: the same rooms and surfaces, the same repairs, the same prep and the same type of paint on each surface. The way to save money on a paint job is to line up the two scopes before the two totals, because ceilings, trim or repairs added back after signing come as a change order.

Texas doesn’t issue a painting contractor license, so there’s no license number to compare there. Rise’s 3-Year Workmanship Warranty covers failures caused by workmanship on qualifying painting projects, such as premature peeling, blistering or flaking, and it starts when the project is completed. Stain and epoxy floor coatings are kept separate from it.

The questions to ask a painting contractor before you hire cover the rest of the checklist. The estimate is free: call or text (443) 743-8052, in English or Spanish.