Exterior house painting in National City

Most National City exteriors run $2.50 to $5 per square foot of painted surface. A single-story house usually lands between $4,000 and $7,000 and a two-story between $6,500 and $12,000. Within those ranges the price follows the prep, not the paint: how much loose paint has to come off, how many stucco cracks need patching, and how much trim, fascia and eave there is. The same pricing applies across our exterior painting in San Diego County.

• Per square foot: $2.50 to $5
• Single-story home: $4,000 to $7,000 typical
• Two-story home: $6,500 to $12,000 typical
• Stucco and trim repair: listed separately on the quote

Yes. On older National City houses the stucco has usually been painted before. The work starts with washing off chalk and dirt so the new coat bonds to the wall rather than to dust. Hairline cracks are opened, filled and primed so they do not telegraph through the finish. Then the coating is matched to the wall, with a breathable acrylic where the stucco needs to dry out. Wood trim and eaves on the same house are scraped back to sound paint and primed; for older homes with original detail, see our historic and Craftsman painting.

Yes, if the home was built before 1978 and the prep disturbs more than a small patch of paint. The EPA's minor-repair exception stops at 20 square feet of exterior paint, so a repaint that scrapes or sands more than that is covered by the rule. In practice that means plastic sheeting under the work area, misting rather than dry sanding, no torch burning, power sanding only with a HEPA attachment, and a careful cleanup of chips from the garden, which is where children and pets play. Every crew we send is EPA Lead-Safe Certified.

Not into the street. National City is one of the cities in the Pueblo San Diego watershed, where small local creeks and storm pipes, many of them concrete-lined, drain directly into San Diego Bay. Wash water that reaches the gutter can end up in the bay with whatever it carries. We berm the work area, keep the flow on the property and direct it into landscaping where the soil can take it. On an older home the paint chips are collected rather than washed away. More on our pressure washing.

Yes. A duplex, triplex or fourplex is priced the same way as a house, by the painted area and the prep it needs, and roughly one home in ten in National City sits in a building like that. The difference is the people: tenants get notice before work starts, windows near the active wall stay closed, and walkways and parking are kept clear. For larger apartment buildings and condo associations, see our commercial and HOA painting.

You can stay home. Most exterior repaints take three to six working days, set mainly by the size of the house, how much repair the stucco and trim need and the weather. On older homes the first day goes largely into washing, setting up containment and scraping. Windows and doors are masked while the walls around them are painted, so expect each side of the house to be closed up for part of a day. See all our services in National City.