In a climate this wet, an exterior paint job is only as good as the scraping, caulking, and priming underneath it. We'll match you with house painters Portland metro homeowners have hired for everything from a single room to a full three-coat exterior, across all the metro's cities.
Washing off moss and chalking, scraping failed film to sound substrate, sanding the edges flat, filling and priming bare wood, and re-caulking joints is where the labour hours in a real quote go. A crew that can start tomorrow and finish in two days is not doing that work. Ask each bidder how many hours they've allowed for prep and what primer they use on bare wood.
Most manufacturers want surfaces above about 50 degrees and dry, which in this region reliably means late May through September, with shoulder weeks either side if the forecast cooperates. Painting a damp wall in October traps moisture and the film fails within a couple of seasons. Book exterior work in winter for a summer slot; interior work is the sensible thing to schedule during the rainy months.
Under overcast skies for much of the year, cool greys read blue indoors and dark exteriors flatten out. Look at samples on the actual wall at different times of day rather than trusting a chip under store lighting. Painters here will usually put up large sample patches for a small fee, which is money well spent.
We confirm CCB registration and insurance before matching, and we pass your job to a small number of painting contractors who cover your area. Nobody pays for placement, and your contact details don't get resold.
Describe the project once and we match it with vetted local pros who actually do this work — you choose who to hire, or nobody at all.
Exterior paint on metro houses typically gives seven to twelve years, and less on north-facing walls under trees where moss and algae get a foothold. Sprinkler overspray, blocked gutters, and soil piled against siding are the three preventable causes of early failure we see cited most. Fixing those before painting adds years to the result.
A large share of pre-1978 housing sits in the close-in metro, and disturbing paint on those homes falls under federal lead-safe renovation rules. Contractors doing that work must be certified and must contain and clean the site properly. Ask to see the certification — it's a fair question and a legitimate one for any house that old.
Exterior colour is governed by HOA covenants in many Beaverton, Tigard, Happy Valley, and Hillsboro neighborhoods, and by historic design review in certain older districts around the metro. Rules and submission timelines are set locally, not regionally. Get approval in hand before your painter mixes forty gallons of a custom colour.
Interior work commonly runs $3 to $7 per square foot of floor area for walls, ceilings, and trim, so a typical room often lands between $500 and $1,200 depending on ceiling height and trim detail. A full exterior repaint on an average metro house usually falls between $5,000 and $14,000, with heavy prep, multi-story access, and cedar or shingle surfaces pushing higher. Two coats over proper prep is the standard to compare against. A bid far below the rest almost always means one coat, less prep, or a sprayer where brushwork belongs.
They spent two full days washing and scraping before a drop of paint went on. Three years later the south wall still looks like it did the week they left.
Booked interior painting for January when nobody else wanted the work. Great price, tidy crew, and they matched the trim on a 1950s house perfectly.
They sprayed our kitchen cabinets instead of us replacing them. Doors came off and went to their shop, and the finish is far harder than anything I could have brushed on.
Two finish coats over primed or previously sound paint, and a spot or full prime coat wherever bare substrate is exposed. Colour changes and dark-to-light transitions may need more. Get the coat count written into the contract rather than assumed.
Both have their place. Spraying is efficient on siding and fences and delivers a smooth film when back-brushed into the surface. Trim, detail work, and most interiors are better brushed and rolled. Ask which surfaces get which method and whether they back-brush sprayed siding.
Minor filler-level repair on trim and sills is normal. Structural rot in fascia, sills, or siding is carpentry, and a good painter will scope it separately or bring in someone who does it. Painting over soft wood is a waste of the paint.
Modern waterborne paints are usually dry to the touch in an hour and recoatable the same day, but full cure takes a couple of weeks. You can move furniture back within a day; avoid scrubbing or taping the walls until the film has hardened.
It can be, if a dry stretch lines up and daytime temperatures hold. Crews are less booked and pricing is sometimes softer than midsummer. The risk is a wet week arriving mid-job, so make sure the contract handles weather delays sensibly.
Tell us the surfaces, the rough size, and your part of the metro. We'll connect you with licensed painting contractors nearby — free to use, no obligation.
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