Exterior House Painting — London & Kent

The outside takes more punishment than the inside ever will

Rain, frost, sun-bleaching, pollution — a house exterior is doing a job the inside never has to. Paint that goes on over flaking, damp, or dirty masonry doesn’t stand a chance against that, no matter how good the paint itself is. So exterior work leans on prep even more than interior does.

What’s involved

• Wash down. Render, masonry and woodwork cleaned of dirt, algae and loose material before anything else happens.
• Scrape and strip. Flaking or blown paint taken back to a sound surface — feathered in rather than painted straight over.
• Fill and treat. Cracks in render filled, any mould or damp patches treated so they’re not just being painted over and hidden.
• Mask. Windows, door furniture, guttering and anything not being painted protected properly.
• Paint. Weather-rated masonry paint or the right system for the surface — render, brick, pebbledash, timber fascias and soffits — applied in the coats and conditions the manufacturer actually specifies, not rushed to fit a schedule.

Weather-dependent, and we plan for it

Exterior painting only goes on in the right conditions — dry surfaces, no rain forecast within the paint’s curing window, and not baking hot midday sun that dries the paint too fast to lay flat. We build the schedule around the weather, not the other way round, and we’re upfront in the quote about how that can shift a start date.

Fascias, soffits and outdoor woodwork

Timber fascias, soffits, and outdoor woodwork like external door frames and window sills get the same standard: rubbed down, any rot or damage flagged before we paint over it, then primed and finished properly rather than skimmed with a quick topcoat.

What exterior painting typically costs

Exterior jobs vary more than interior ones — house size, how much scaffolding or tower access is needed, and the condition of the render or masonry underneath all move the price. As a general guide for London and Kent in 2026:

• Exterior of a typical 3-bed house (masonry, render, fascias and woodwork): £2,500–£4,500
• Smaller jobs — a single elevation, a garage, or fascias and soffits only — sit well below that range; larger or detached properties, or houses needing scaffold rather than ladder access, can run above it.

These figures cover a full repaint, not a single wall or touch-up. See our cost guide for painting a 3-bed house for the full breakdown of what moves a job up or down that range, and our price list and day-rate guide for the wider context.

What’s included in a typical quote: washing down, scraping back flaking or blown paint, filling render cracks, masking windows and guttering, and the paint itself — labour and materials for that scope, at the quoted price.

What can cost extra: treating damp or mould rather than just masking it before painting, scaffold or tower hire for properties without safe ladder access, extensive rot repair in fascias or soffits found once we’re up there, and premium masonry paint systems if you’ve specified one over standard trade paint. We flag anything like this on the visit, before it’s in the quote — not once we’re partway through the job.

How long an exterior repaint takes

A typical 3-bed house exterior runs 5–10 working days, weather permitting — longer for a bigger or more detached property, or where scaffold needs to go up first. Because so much of exterior work depends on dry, settled conditions, we build a realistic window into the quote rather than promising a fixed start date regardless of forecast — a job that gets rushed into drizzle or baking heat is a job that fails early.

Which paint do we use?

Standard trade masonry systems — Dulux Weathershield or Johnstone’s Stormshield, depending on the surface — cover most jobs well and carry a proper manufacturer weather rating. Sandtex is a common request too, and we’re just as happy to use it or another system if you’ve specified one. Whichever brand, we apply it in the coats and conditions the manufacturer actually specifies — that matters more for how long an exterior finish lasts than which tin it came out of.

Access and scaffolding

Ground-floor and single-storey work is usually straightforward from a ladder or a small tower. Two and three-storey houses, terraces without side access, or properties with a steep roofline typically need scaffold or a mobile access platform instead — that’s assessed on the visit and built into the quote as a line item, not sprung on you once we’ve started.

Why Daking

An exterior repaint is a bigger, more exposed job than an interior one — mistakes are visible from the street and expensive to redo. Every exterior job comes with a written, fixed-price quote, a realistic timeframe that accounts for weather, and Daking’s workmanship guarantee once the job’s done.