Nobody wants to be embarrassed by an ugly, unsightly home. If that's something you want to avoid, sooner or later you're going to have to either get out and paint yours, or have it painted for you.

How often should you paint the exterior of your house in Florida? It depends. You'll need to know the answer to a few questions before making your determination.

What are the exterior walls made of? This will ultimately determine how often you should paint the exterior of your home!
In Florida, homes will typically have five types of exterior walls: wood, aluminum, brick, cement, and stucco.

Exterior paint on wood is going to be the most labor-intensive of your options, especially in Florida. While an exterior paint job on wood can last up to 7 years in temperate climates, our tropical climate may mean the exterior of your Florida home might need to be repainted in as few as three years.

Paint on aluminum siding is usually good for a solid 5 years in spite of rain and weather.

Paint on stucco in Florida lasts for a similar amount of time, roughly 5-6 years but sometimes you can get away with waiting 7 years before repainting the exterior.

Paint on cement fiber siding can last for ten to fifteen years.

Brick, of course, rarely gets painted at all. If you live in a brick home you often really only need to worry about the composition of exterior shutters, or other portions of your home which may have been painted in the past. However, there was a time when painting over brick was fairly common. If you really want your brick house painted, the good news is painted brick can last 15 to 20 years when it's done correctly.

What kind of paint are you using?
A truly water-proof, premium paint can make a huge difference to the longevity of your paint job. This is one place where you don't want to skimp in the name of saving money. You'll end up spending way more to redo your paint job faster than you have to than you will to just buy a high-quality paint the first time.

If you read our blog post titled, "Best Exterior Paints for Florida Stucco Homes," you'll see the brand recommendations we make. We like Sherwin-Williams, Behr, and Scott Paint. All are solid choices for any material as long as you make sure you're choosing exterior waterproof paint that's up to the challenge.

If you want the most durable paint job that provides the best waterproofing protection, look to elastomeric paints. You can use them on just about any surface, though if you're working with wood, waterproof acrylic is usually the better choice.

Waterproofing should, in fact, be your biggest concern, above and beyond aesthetics. You want your home to look nice, but done right, exterior paint will also play a key role in protecting your home from water.

What's your exterior painting skill level?
Painting is a skill, and that skill level matters.

A lot of the final product boils down to your prep work. If you don't know what to do, or if you skip a step, you could see any paint job fail within a year even if you've gotten everything else right.

For example, if you don't get all the old paint off of your home then your paint job is likely to fail. If you don't take the time to detect and correct water leaks you may end up trapping moisture inside of your walls.

Then there's other details like choosing the correct applicator and technique for the surface you're working with.

If you find you have to repaint your home more than you'd expect to given the surface you're working with, your technique, not the paint, is probably to blame. You might want to consider hiring a professional, which can mean paint jobs that last far longer. They may also look better, making both you and your neighbors a lot happier. We've been providing residential exterior painting services since 1988 so if you'd rather hire a professional, please give us a call!

What does your current exterior paint look like?

Every house is different. They vary in terms of sun and weather exposure, and their painting history varies too. By "painting history" we mean the type and quality of the paint used and the skill level of the painter will vary from house to house.

That's why we recommend taking a walk around the house every spring and see how the paint is holding up no matter how recent the exterior was painted. You may have thought that the paint job done just two years ago would last for at least a few more years but you may discover during your inspection that its failing and a repaint is needed sooner than expected.

We provide professional residential exterior painting services in Pinellas, Pasco, and Hillsborough counties including the cities of Clearwater (including Countryside), Trinity, and more! You can see our entire service area here. Feel free to call us at (727) 799-1133 for a free estimate!