Since the United States has varied weather from region to region, some paints
that perform well in the direct sunshine and in hot weather may not do so well in colder climates where it is wet and moist for much of the year. Finding a paint that will withstand both weather extremes is not easy. When I first moved into our house we had the siding redone and the house was repainted at that time. It’s been 7 years now and the paint is holding up pretty well except on a few of the awnings and the side of the house that faces south since that takes the brunt of the storms approaching from southern Oregon with high winds that pelt our homes exterior.
We have had to have our front door and surrounding frame replaced already due to water damage from severe weather that caused the paint to fail and leaking to occur. We know the exterior paint will not last forever so we are looking into our options early. When you go onto the Internet to find reviews of the best exterior paints there are lots of sites for do it yourselfers but not too many that rate and compare the top brands on an unbiased level. We do subscribe to Consumer Reports magazine and found their reviews of house paints to be pretty thorough, although they don’t cover regional paints in some areas and they only list paints that haven’t reformulated their products (which is rare). You get limited results from CR, but the findings are very informative and helpful nonetheless. I also found some quality discussions on sites like Bobvila.com (the famous house fixer-upper on TV) about exterior paints and what consumers should be looking for in terms of price and longevity.
We have a real good buying guide for exterior paints which all homeowners should look at. Prices do range from about $20 to $50 gallon – you can do the math based on an average home being about 2000 square feet which requires roughly 20 gallons of paint ($400 to $1000 for paint alone). Expect to spend $2000 to $3500 for a normal sized house and upwards of $5000 for a larger home. If you are having a professional paint your house, you can still buy the paint at your local store and save money on any markup they may put on it for buying for you. For discount exterior paint prices, buy larger sizes – go with a 5 gallon container versus the regular 1 gallon can. In terms of colors, it’s easy to get some samples to put on the side of your house and let them sit for a few days to see how they will look once dried.