Exterior paint costs in Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh has more than 800 sets of public steps, more than any other city in the country, the city says. Steps like that exist because the hills are steep. If your house sits on one of those slopes, with the front at street level and the back dropping away, the high side needs longer ladders on uneven ground, or scaffolding. When we ask how easy your walls are to reach, "needs a lift" may be the honest answer.

Old houses here also call for patient prep. In the Mexican War Streets, the city's historic district guidelines ask for failing paint to be hand scraped and feather sanded to the next sound layer. The Historic Review Commission won't look kindly on stripping siding down to bare wood, because that exposes it to faster weathering. Careful hand work like that takes time on any older Pittsburgh house, district or not.

Then there's the sky. Over the years NOAA tracked it, Pittsburgh got about 42 percent of its possible sunshine, and just 23 percent in December. Paint dries slowly on a wall that stays cool and damp, so a crew here leaves room in the schedule for gray, wet stretches.