Exterior paint costs in Spokane

Prewar houses are common in Spokane. About one in seven homes in the metro was built in 1939 or earlier, and more than a quarter before 1960. Houses that old carry decades of paint, and the bottom layers are often the ones letting go.

Winter is hard on all of it. Nights stay below freezing on average from November through March, and snowfall runs about 41 inches in a typical year. Water that gets behind cracked paint or into open joints freezes and thaws there over and over, and each cycle pries a little more loose. By the time the snow melts, that damage is easy to see.

Summer is the repair window. July brings highs around 84°F and only about half an inch of rain, and August is nearly as dry. That's when scraping, priming bare wood and recaulking can happen on walls that have finally dried out.

Washington runs its own lead-paint certification. The state Commerce Department says that if you or your business does renovation, repair or painting on pre-1978 homes, certification is required, and a firm must have an owner or employee with individual certification. On an older Spokane house, that state certification is the one that counts.