MetroWest Boston
Exterior house painting
Wash, scrape, sand, prime every bare board, two finish coats. The New England exterior season is short — we plan the calendar around it, not around our backlog.
- Typical investment
- $3,000 – $20,000 depending on size, height and prep — see the full breakdown
- How long it takes
- 4 – 12 working days for most homes
- Season
- April – October, plus low-temperature product windows in late fall
- Warranty
- 3 years, written, on workmanship — terms
Prep is the job. Scraping, sanding, spot-priming and caulking is where a 10-year paint job separates from a 3-year one.
Every bare board gets primer before a finish coat touches it. That line is in your contract, not just on this page.
We work around delicate plants. We cover when we can; when we cannot, we make sure the crew works around them.
What “exterior painting” should actually include
Most of what you are paying for is invisible by the time the crew leaves. Here is the full sequence we run on a standard MetroWest colonial, in order:
- Walk and document. We photograph every failure point — peeling south wall, rot at the sill, open joints on the trim — before anything is touched. You get the photos.
- Low-pressure house wash. Mildew, pollen and chalking come off. High-pressure washing drives water behind clapboard, so we do not use it on wood siding.
- Scrape and sand to a sound edge. Feathered, not chopped, so the new film has something sound to hold. Pre-1978 homes have extra rules on this step — we will tell you at the walk-through if they apply.
- Carpentry and rot repair. Rotten trim gets replaced before paint, not painted over. Priced separately and shown as a line item, so you can see what it cost.
- Spot-prime every bare surface. Bare wood, bare metal, exposed nail heads. Oil or bonding primer depending on substrate.
- Caulk moving joints only. Not every gap should be sealed — clapboard needs to breathe. We caulk trim-to-siding and window perimeters, and leave the drainage paths open.
- Two finish coats. Brush and roll on trim and detail, sprayed and back-brushed on broad siding so the film is actually worked into the surface.
- The Final Walk. We walk the property with you, write the punch list on paper, and fix it before we ask for the last payment. How that works →
Siding we work on most in MetroWest
Cedar clapboard and cedar shingle dominate this area, and they behave completely differently.
- Cedar clapboard. Tannin bleed is the enemy. Bare cedar gets a stain-blocking primer or the tannins ghost through a white topcoat within a season.
- Cedar shingle and shake. More surface area, more edges, more time. If it has been stained rather than painted, we usually recommend staying with stain — paint over old semi-transparent stain on shakes is a maintenance trap.
- Vinyl. Paintable with the right acrylic, but only in colors at or lighter than the original, or the panels warp in July.
- Fiber cement (HardiePlank). Excellent substrate. Usually just needs a wash and one to two coats.
- Stucco and masonry. Needs breathable, elastomeric-appropriate product and careful crack routing first.
When we can and cannot paint your house
New England gives us roughly six usable months. Traditional acrylics need surface temperatures above 40°F; modern products (Sherwin-Williams Resilience, Benjamin Moore Aura) will bond down to 35°F, but they have to cure before the temperature drops overnight. We will move your date rather than paint a wet wall.
Recent work
Exterior painting photographs
We recently had the exterior of our house painted by Target Painting, and we couldn’t be happier with the result. Alex and Hector did an outstanding job and were extremely careful, skilled, and attentive to detail throughout the project… The quality of the preparation and painting was excellent, and the finished house looks terrific.
Target Painting worked really hard to restore and paint my home. The home needed a lot of carpentry work on the south side. Target replaced/repaired all of the trim that needed attention. Then they cleaned the gutters, power-washed, caulked and prepped all surfaces for painting. The job was done correctly and not rushed. I will have Target back for several other projects I have coming up.
I have used Target painting now for both interior and exterior painting. The exterior was just finished and they did an excellent job. Big shout out to Joe and Matheus for getting my house painted to perfection. I highly recommend this company.
FAQ
Exterior painting — questions we get asked
How long will an exterior paint job actually last here?
Seven to ten years is the realistic range in Massachusetts for professionally prepped and painted wood siding. South- and west-facing walls fail first. If someone promises fifteen, ask them what the warranty says.
Do you paint in the rain, or right before it?
No. If the forecast turns, we stop and come back. That is why our schedule has slack built into it in spring and fall.
Will you protect my garden?
Yes, and we will say so in writing. Breathable drop cloths over beds, plants tied back rather than crushed, and an end-of-day rinse. We have had a review complain about dead grass under a stored storm door — that is exactly the kind of thing our written site protocol now covers.
What if you find rot once you start scraping?
We stop, photograph it, and give you a written change order with the price before we do the work. You will never get a surprise line on the final invoice.