Cost Guides · · 9 min read · by KB Quality Painting
Key takeaways
- Most Orange County exteriors fall between roughly $5,000 and $15,000 for a full repaint.
- Siding type matters enormously — cedar and stucco cost considerably more to prep than vinyl.
- Rot repair is the most common legitimate add-on and should be quoted as its own line.
- A properly prepped exterior should last 8–12 years here. A cheap one fails in three.
Typical exterior painting costs
Exterior painting in the Hudson Valley is priced primarily on surface area, height and how much preparation the existing surface needs. The following ranges reflect professional work in 2026 including washing, scraping, priming, caulking and two coats of a premium acrylic — not a single-coat spray-and-go.
| Home size | Typical range | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Small ranch or cape (~1,200 sq ft) | $4,500 – $8,000 | Capes carry more trim than the footprint suggests |
| Average two-story (~2,000 sq ft) | $6,500 – $12,000 | The most common Orange County job |
| Large colonial (~3,000 sq ft) | $10,000 – $18,000 | Height and access drive the top end |
| Trim and shutters only | $1,800 – $4,500 | Good option when siding is still sound |
| Front door and entry only | $300 – $700 | Highest visual impact per dollar on any exterior |
Siding type changes the number substantially
| Siding | Relative cost | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Vinyl | Lowest | Minimal prep, but requires vinyl-safe heat-reflective product |
| Aluminum | Low–moderate | Chalking must be fully washed off; bonding primer needed |
| Fiber cement (HardiePlank) | Moderate | Stable substrate, straightforward prep, long service life |
| Wood clapboard | Moderate–high | Scraping and priming dominate the labor |
| Cedar shake / shingle | High | Enormous surface area in the texture; slow to coat |
| Stucco | High | Crack repair plus a breathable masonry system |
What legitimately adds to the price
Rot and carpentry repair
This is the most common and most legitimate add-on, and any honest contractor will flag it at the estimate rather than discovering it mid-job. Rotted window sills, soft fascia, split corner boards and damaged brick mold have to be repaired before coating — painting over rot hides it for exactly one season. Expect this to be quoted as a separate line so you can see what it costs. See trim and carpentry.
Height and access
Three-story sections, steep roof pitches that need ladder jacks or staging, walkout basements on a slope, and houses set into a hillside all add real time. A lot of Orange County housing is on sloped lots, and a rear elevation that's effectively three stories tall changes the job.
The condition of the existing paint
The single biggest variable. A house with sound existing paint that just needs washing and two coats is a fraction of the work of a house with widespread peeling that needs extensive scraping, feathering and spot-priming. Older homes in Walden, Montgomery, Goshen and Newburgh's historic districts frequently fall into the second category.
Color change
Going dramatically lighter — a deep colonial red or forest green to a light gray — usually needs a primer coat plus two finish coats. That's 50% more application across the whole house.
Lead-safe practices
Homes built before 1978 fall under the EPA's Renovation, Repair and Painting rule, which governs containment, cleanup and documentation whenever painted surfaces are disturbed. This adds cost and it is not optional. Much of Orange County's older housing is affected — see lead paint safety in pre-1978 homes.
Why the cheapest exterior quote is the riskiest
Exterior painting is where cutting prep does the most damage, because the failure mode is dramatic and the timeline is short. Paint applied over a chalking, dirty or damp surface doesn't fail gradually — it lets go in sheets, often within two or three winters, and then you're paying to strip it before you can repaint.
The prep steps that get quietly deleted from a low bid, in order of how much damage skipping them does:
- The wash. Chalking is a powdery oxidized layer on aged paint that no coating can bond through. Skipping the wash guarantees failure regardless of how good the paint is.
- Priming bare wood. Every scraped area and every repair must be primed. Latex over bare wood without primer will not hold.
- Caulking. Open joints let water behind the film. In a freeze-thaw climate, water behind the film is what physically pushes paint off the substrate.
- Feathering scrape lines. An unfeathered scrape edge telegraphs through the finish as a visible ridge, and it's a stress point where the new coating will fail first.
- The second coat. One coat of exterior paint has roughly half the film build and dramatically less than half the service life.
The honest comparison: a properly prepped exterior in Orange County should give you 8–12 years on wood siding. A cheap one gives you three. Divide each quote by its realistic service life before deciding which is actually cheaper.
How to compare exterior quotes fairly
Ask every contractor to put these in writing:
- Is the house being washed, and at what pressure?
- How is loose paint being handled — scraped and feathered, or just spot-scraped?
- Is all bare wood and every repair being primed?
- Are open joints being caulked, and with what?
- How many finish coats, and what product line?
- Is rot repair included, excluded, or quoted separately?
- Which elevations and which components — shutters, doors, soffits, porch, railings?
- Certificate of insurance, and a written warranty on workmanship?
Two quotes that answer those questions identically are comparable. Two quotes that don't answer them at all aren't quotes, they're numbers.
Get a real number
We provide free written exterior estimates across Orange County with the scope spelled out line by line, including any carpentry we think the house needs before coating. See our exterior painting process for exactly what's included.