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Exterior paint costs in Portland

Here’s the ballpark for common exterior paint jobs around Portland, OR. Want one for your own project? A photo is all it takes.

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Portland

What it usually costs

  • Repaint the whole house$1.50 – $6.00 per sq ft
  • Paint just the trim and shutters$1.58 – $6.32 per sq ft

A ballpark, not a quote. Some of these are national averages adjusted for Portland prices, so your job could land outside them.

Exterior paint in Portland

Oregon puts its own license on top of the federal lead-paint rules. The state's Construction Contractors Board says only contractors licensed for Lead-Based Paint Renovation can bid on or work on pre-1978 homes. It also says those homes are presumed to have lead paint unless testing shows otherwise.

In Portland, that covers a big share of the housing. Roughly one house in ten across the metro was already standing in 1940, and more than four in ten were up before 1980. If yours is one of the older wood-sided ones, a repaint usually means scraping where the old paint has let go, and that's exactly the work the license covers.

The weather sets the pace for that prep. July is nearly dry, with barely half an inch, while November and December each pour down more than five and a half. Wood that soaks all winter needs a run of dry days before it will take primer well, so scraping and priming an old house is summer work here.

Before you sign, ask the painter for two license numbers, not one. In Oregon, a lead-based paint renovator also has to hold a regular CCB license.

Sources

Questions homeowners ask

How accurate is a photo estimate?
It’s a ballpark, not a quote. One photo rarely shows the whole house, so a local painter who walks the property will always be more precise. Use our number as the range to expect before you start calling around.
What changes the price of an exterior paint job?
Square footage is the biggest factor, then how much prep the old paint needs — bare wood or peeling paint takes far more work than a clean recoat. Trim, multiple stories, and a color change add to it too.
Do I need to measure my house?
A rough guess at the wall square footage helps a lot, but if you don’t know it, just skip the question and we’ll estimate from your photo.
Is this really free?
Yes. No signup, no credit card, no spam. We only make money if you choose to connect with a local pro — and that’s up to you.
What photo works best?
A shot of the front of the house, plus any sides showing wear like peeling or bare spots, gives us the best read.

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