Exterior paint costs in San Francisco
Here’s the ballpark for common exterior paint jobs around San Francisco, CA. Want one for your own project? A photo is all it takes.
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What it usually costs
- Repaint the whole house$2.50 – $6.00 per sq ft
- Paint just the trim and shutters$1.73 – $6.94 per sq ft
A ballpark, not a quote. Some of these are national averages adjusted for San Francisco prices, so your job could land outside them.
Exterior paint in San Francisco
San Francisco treats old paint as lead paint until someone proves it isn't. The city says paint in a building from before 1979 is presumed to contain lead unless a certified inspector shows otherwise. The housing is old enough to make that matter: a fifth of the Bay Area metro's homes date from before 1940, and about two-thirds from before 1980.
So if your painter will scrape or sand, the city's rules show up on your sidewalk. Neighbors get notice at least three business days before work starts. A 32-by-24-inch "Lead Work in Progress" sign goes up out front. The work area gets plastic sheeting and barriers, and the city says never to dry-sand or scrape lead paint without containment, or to strip it with an open flame.
None of that is optional, and all of it happens before the first brushstroke. On a Victorian or an Edwardian with brackets, bay windows and layers of trim, setting up and cleaning up around every painted edge is a big part of what the crew does.
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