Exterior paint costs in Eugene

Eugene is a wet place to keep paint looking good. Close to 45 inches fall in an average year, with more than seven in each of November, December and January. July, by contrast, gets less than half an inch.

Much of the housing has lived through a lot of those winters. More than half the metro's homes are older than 1980, and the median home dates to 1977.

All that damp feeds mildew, which is most active when the paint surface is damp or wet. It favors the parts of a house that stay cool and collect dew because they aren't heated, like eaves and porch ceilings. If the gray speckles under your eaves look like dirt, they may not be. The simple test is a drop of household bleach: mildew usually bleaches out in a minute or two, and a stain that doesn't is probably dirt.

The finish you pick matters, too. Mildew grows more readily on exterior flat house paint than on exterior enamel. If your porch ceiling or north eaves keep going gray, a glossier enamel there is worth a look, even if the walls stay flat.