Exterior paint costs in McAllen

In the McAllen metro, the sun is what your paint has to survive. The thermometer at the airport hits 90°F on about 177 days of the average year, close to half of them, and about 40 of those days reach 100°F.

That much sun breaks paint down. It fades the color and leaves a chalky film you can wipe off with your hand. South and west walls go first. Chalky paint has to be washed off before new paint will stick, so a repaint here starts with a real cleaning even when nothing is peeling.

Rain is light, about 22 inches a year, so a painter loses few days to wet weather. Heat is the bigger scheduling problem. Diamond Vogel warns that direct, bright sun, especially on a dark color, and a hot surface both make paint dry too fast. In summer, that can mean painting each wall when it's in the shade.

Houses here are mostly young: about half are from this century, and almost none predate 1940. So old lead paint rarely drives the job here. The work is mostly cleaning, caulk and fresh color.

If you're picking a new color, a lighter shade on the sunny walls will stay cooler and show fading less than a dark one.