How do you maintain exterior paint?
Updated August 2026
Exterior paint stays sound on a yearly wash plus same-season touch-ups, with a full repaint due every 5 to 10 years on wood and 10 to 15 on fiber cement. The point is not looks, it is the seal: paint is the raincoat over the siding, and the moment it cracks or peels down to bare wood, water starts rotting the substrate underneath. Chase peeling and bare spots within a few weeks and you stretch the interval; ignore them and a touch-up job becomes a $3,000 to $10,000-plus repaint over rotted boards.
| Task | Interval | Effort |
|---|---|---|
| Wash siding to clear dirt, mildew, and chalking | Yearly | 2–3 hrs · DIY |
| Walk the walls for peeling, blistering, and bare spots | Yearly | 20 min · DIY |
| Recaulk gaps at trim, corners, and window edges | Yearly | $15–40 DIY |
| Task | Interval | Effort |
|---|---|---|
| Scrape, prime, and spot-paint bare wood within weeks | As it appears | 1–2 hrs · DIY |
| Sand and touch up sun-faded, chalky south and west walls | As it appears | 2 hrs · DIY |
| Task | Interval | Effort |
|---|---|---|
| Full repaint: wood siding | 5–10 years | $3,000–8,000 pro |
| Full repaint: fiber cement | 10–15 years | $4,000–10,000+ pro |
What neglect costs
Peeling paint is not a cosmetic problem, it is an open door. Bare wood soaks up every rain, and within a season or two the board behind it softens, rots, and invites carpenter ants and mold; now the painter has to replace siding and trim before a brush ever comes out. That is why letting paint peel turns a weekend of scraping and spot-priming into a $3,000 to $10,000-plus repaint plus carpentry. The wash-and-touch-up habit costs a few hours and a $40 quart of paint a year.
Leave these to a pro
A full repaint is where pros earn their fee, because 80% of the job is prep: scraping, sanding, spot-priming, and caulking a whole house, often two stories up on ladders. Expect $3,000 to $8,000 for an average wood-sided home and $4,000 to $10,000-plus for fiber cement, driven by size, stories, and how much bare wood needs repair first. Lead-safe prep on pre-1978 homes is legally a certified pro's job. The yearly wash, seasonal touch-ups, and recaulking are all comfortably DIY and are exactly what pushes that big repaint further out.
This whole checklist ships as reminders in OnOtto: every task above, on the right schedule for your home, snooze-proof.
Load this checklist as remindersFrequently asked questions
How do I know whether to touch up or fully repaint?
Touch up when the failure is local: a few peeling boards, a chalky wall, caulk gaps you can spot-fix in an afternoon. Repaint when it is widespread, when peeling and cracking show up across whole elevations, colors have faded unevenly, or you find bare wood in many places. A quick test: rub a damp cloth on the siding, and if it comes away heavily chalked over most of the house, the coating is spent. Sun-facing walls usually fail first and can be repainted alone to buy time.
Can I pressure wash siding before painting?
You can, but gently and rarely with full pressure. A pressure washer set too high drives water behind the siding, gouges soft wood, and blasts off sound paint, and that trapped water then bubbles the fresh coat. Use a low setting or a garden hose with a scrub brush and a mildew cleaner for most washing. Whatever method you use, let the siding dry a full day or two before painting; sealing paint over damp wood is a fast track to peeling.
Why is my new paint peeling so soon?
Almost always moisture or prep, not the paint. Painting over a dirty, chalky, or damp surface gives the new coat nothing to grip, so it lets go in months. Moisture pushing out from inside, a bathroom fan venting into a wall, a plumbing leak, or missing flashing, will lift paint from behind no matter how good the coat. Skipping primer on bare wood or recoating in direct sun that flashes the paint too fast are the other usual culprits. Fix the source, then repaint that area properly.
Does fiber cement siding still need painting?
Yes, though far less often. Factory-finished fiber cement holds its color 10 to 15 years or more, roughly double a wood repaint cycle, because the board itself does not rot or swell. But the paint is still the weather layer, so you wash it yearly, caulk the joints, and repaint when the finish dulls and chalks. The big win is that a missed touch-up on fiber cement does not rot the substrate the way it does on wood, so a lapse is far more forgiving.