Painting the outside of a house is governed by three things that do not arise indoors: the weather, the height, and the wall itself. Paint applied in damp, cold or strong sun fails early; most of the risk in the job is in the ladder; and the solid wall of an old house can be damaged by the wrong kind of paint.
In England planning permission is not normally needed to repaint a house. Listed buildings are a different matter, and in some conservation areas the right has been withdrawn.
Exterior paint needs a dry surface, a dry day, and time to dry before dew, rain or frost arrives. In Britain that means, in practice, late spring to early autumn. Each tin gives a minimum temperature for application. Strong direct sun is nearly as bad as cold, because the paint dries before it has bonded; the usual practice is to follow the shade round the house.
Modern houses have cavity walls of brick or block, often rendered or pebble-dashed, and these are painted with masonry paint, smooth or textured.
Old houses generally have solid walls of brick or stone laid in lime mortar, sometimes with a lime render. The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, in a technical advice note of 2020, explains that walls of this kind are absorbent and depend on moisture evaporating again from the surface. An impermeable paint stops that evaporation; water still finds its way behind the film, where it blisters the paint in hot weather and damages the wall in frost. The society's recommended finish is limewash, which is porous. It is described under limewash walls.
Bare facing brick in good condition is best left unpainted. Paint on brick is very difficult to remove, and once applied it has to be maintained indefinitely.
Windows, doors, fascias and bargeboards fail first at joints and on lower rails, where water collects. Soft, rotten wood is cut out and repaired before painting; paint will not hold it together. Sound old paint is rubbed down, bare wood is primed, and the finish is built up with undercoat and gloss, or with one of the flexible exterior systems designed to let the timber breathe.
Exterior woodwork painted before the 1960s may carry lead paint. It is not burnt off or sanded dry. The safe methods are set out under lead paint, asbestos and paint disposal.
Iron gutters, downpipes and railings are wire-brushed to remove rust and loose paint, primed with a metal primer where bare, and finished with gloss or a paint made for metal. Plastic windows and gutters are not normally painted.
The work goes from the top down: fascias, soffits and gutters, then the walls, then windows and doors, and the plinth at the foot of the wall last. Walls are painted in sections bounded by natural breaks — a corner, a downpipe, a window — so that joins do not show.
This is where the danger lies. The Health and Safety Executive's rules for a leaning ladder are that it is set at about 75 degrees, one unit out for every four up; that it is tied or otherwise secured against slipping; that it rests on a strong surface, not on glazing or a plastic gutter; and that nobody works from the top three rungs. Paint is carried in a kettle hooked to the ladder, which leaves a hand free. The ladder is moved often; the stretch that can be reached without leaning is short.
For anything beyond a short spell at first-floor height, a tower scaffold or fixed scaffolding is the appropriate equipment. Scaffolding that stands on a pavement or road needs a licence from the local highway authority, which the scaffolding contractor normally obtains.
In England, painting the exterior of a house is generally permitted development and needs no planning application. The exceptions are these:
The rules in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are made separately. In every case the local planning authority is the body to ask.