Exterior paint costs in Lafayette

Sterling Grove shows what older Lafayette houses look like up close. The National Register nomination for the district near downtown describes 59 buildings dating mainly from 1890 to 1934, with a strong lean toward frame construction and wood siding. There are galleried cottages, Queen Anne houses with bays and gables, and Colonial Revival columns.

Lafayette's climate is soggy and hot: close to 63 inches of rain a year, and the hot season pushes past 90°F on about 91 days. Old wood in that climate never gets a long rest, and the paint on it works loose.

Beyond the old neighborhoods, the metro has a broad mix. Roughly 4 in 10 homes predate 1980 and about a third date from 2000 or later, so a painter here might do a 1990s house with siding and trim one week and a century-old cottage the next.

The old wood houses have a lot of trim. Brackets, porch ceilings, columns, railings and window casings all have to be scraped and brushed by hand, and that detail work takes far longer than rolling flat siding. A deep gallery is a small job of its own, so count the porch separately when you compare bids.