Facade painting cost

What a facade costs is decided before the first coat

Anyone looking up the price per square metre of a facade expects a figure, and a number given without seeing the house is no use to anyone. Here is what really makes up the price: what is used to reach the wall, how many square metres it has, what state it is in and what a quote has to say so that you can set it side by side with another. It applies to a house and to an apartment building, from the coast to the inland towns of the province.

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If you do not yet know what your facade is made of, start by identifying it: it is the first thing anyone pricing the job looks at.

What the photo does not show

What it costs to get up to the facade

On a facade, part of the quote is neither paint nor painting: it is the means of working at height. There are four, and which one applies is not chosen on price. The facade itself decides.

Scaffolding

Standing on the ground, built from the bottom up

When it suits: Facades with plenty of work besides the painting — repairs, sills, cornices — because it keeps the whole surface within arm’s reach for the entire job.
What you pay for besides the painting: Putting it up and taking it down, which is a job with its own crew; the days it stays up; the sheeting or netting that stops anything falling into the street; and, if it stands on the pavement or the road, the relevant municipal permit and fee.
When it will not do: A street so narrow that, with it up, there is no room to get past, or ground with nowhere firm to stand it.

Cherry picker

A basket on a boom, working from the ground

When it suits: Houses and low buildings with room in front to bring the machine in: it goes up, a section is painted, it comes down and is moved along. There is nothing to put up.
What you pay for besides the painting: The days the machine is needed, often plus its transport to the site. And the ground, which has to be firm and level wherever it stands.
When it will not do: Sloping gardens, flower beds that cannot be walked on, an entrance it will not fit through or a height the boom cannot reach.

Suspended cradle

Hung from the roof, working from the top down

When it suits: Tall, flat facades on apartment buildings, where scaffolding from the street would have to climb many storeys to reach the same point.
What you pay for besides the painting: Anchoring it at the top and checking that the roof can take it, moving it from one section to the next and getting equipment and materials up to the roof terrace.
When it will not do: Facades with a lot of projections, such as continuous balconies, jutting terraces or prominent cornices, which force it to work around them on every floor.

Rope access

Operatives suspended on ropes

When it suits: One-off repairs and places nothing else can reach: light wells, party walls, sides with no access from below.
What you pay for besides the painting: Staff with specific training for working suspended and safe anchor points on the roof. It saves the setting up, not the preparation of the wall.
When it will not do: Long jobs across the whole facade that need heavy tools and materials to hand right next to the wall.

All four have one thing in common: the time they stay in place counts. A day of rain with the levante, the easterly wind, is not a painting day, and if the equipment is hired, the clock keeps running. On this coast, the calendar is part of the price.

The square metres

Your house’s square metres are not your facade’s

The area in the title deeds is built floor space, and the plot area is land. Neither of them gets painted. What gets painted is each side of the house, by its width and its height.

In round numbers: a two-storey villa measuring 10 by 8 metres and 6 metres high has 160 m² of built floor area. Its perimeter is 36 metres, which at 6 metres high gives 216 m² of external wall before taking off doors and windows.

There is also surface that the tape measure does not see head-on: the edges of balconies, the back of terraces, the eaves, the parapets on the roof terrace or a party wall that rises above the house next door. Count it as one more side, or ask whether the quote includes it.

And not everyone measures the same way. Some deduct every window, some only the large ones and some none at all, because cutting in around an opening takes more work than painting it. All three methods exist. What matters is that the quote says which one it uses.

Width (m)

Height (m)

Openings (m²)

Enter the width and height of one side of the house to see how many square metres it has. Windows and doors are deducted under “Openings”.

Per metre

Why one metre of facade does not cost the same as another

Once the square metres are counted and the access equipment decided, the price of each metre depends on four more things.

The state of the surfaceWash and repaint, or make good first
If the old paint is still firmly bonded, the facade is washed, stabilised where needed and painted. If it is flaking, shedding dust or has open cracks, it first has to be scraped, repaired with mortar and left to cure. It is the item that varies most from one house to another, and on the seafront, where the salt has been at work for years, it is usually the one that decides.
Projections and detailsBalconies, window surrounds and cornices
A plain section is covered quickly, by roller or by machine. Every balcony, every window surround and every cornice adds edges that are cut in by brush and changes of plane that mean moving the scaffolding or the basket. With the same square metres, a highly detailed facade takes many more hours than a plain one.
The paint chosenWhat lasts, not just what the tin costs
From acrylic to siloxane or silicate, the price per litre changes, and so do the coverage and the number of coats each one needs. But on a facade the material is only part of the bill: choosing the cheapest to save money turns out expensive on the day the access equipment has to go back up sooner than it should.
What is around itCovering up, clearing away and leaving it clean
Parked cars, awnings, plant pots, a pool right underneath: whatever is not being painted is protected, and with the wind on this coast that protection has to hold without blowing away. If railings, gutters or window frames are being painted as well, each one takes its own product and should appear as a separate line.

None of them shows up in a photo of the whole house. They are seen up close, which is why a serious price for a facade comes after someone has been to see it.

Plain talking

What to bear in mind before signing a facade quote

The access equipment, on its own line

Which one it is, who puts it up, how many days are included and who applies for the permit if it takes up the street. Lumped in with the painting as a single figure, there is no way of knowing whether two offers are counting on the same scaffolding, or whether one has not even allowed for it.

What is done to the wall

Washing, making good, crack repair, stabiliser or primer, and which family of paint with how many coats. A quote that only says “paint facade” is putting a price on the one thing you see on the last day.

What happens if it rains or something turns up

Who bears the days the equipment stands idle because of bad weather, how repairs that come to light during scraping are charged, whether the final clean-up is included and whether the figure includes IVA (Spanish VAT) or not. On a facade the unexpected is the norm, and it is better for it to have a price before it happens.

Which family of paint your wall needs, and the order in which it goes on, is covered in painting your facade. And why the side facing the levante and the west-facing side age faster than the rest, in our main facades page.

Questions

Questions about the price of a facade

Why is there no price per metre here?

Because on a facade the square metre is not what weighs most. Two houses with the same surface area can need different access equipment and have walls in opposite states, and that moves the total more than the paint does. With a photo of each side, the measurements and how it is reached, we give a fixed price in writing.

Is scaffolding charged separately?

It depends who is quoting: some include it in the price per metre and others list it as a separate item. The second suits you better, because it lets you compare. If it is included, ask what equipment they have allowed for and for how many days; scaffolding costed too short ends up being charged somewhere else.

Is it cheaper to paint only the side facing the street?

It costs less in total, but not in proportion. There are costs that do not depend on the square metres — bringing and setting up the equipment, applying for the permit, protecting the surroundings, getting the team there — and spread over less surface they make each metre dearer. Besides, the side that needs it most is usually the one facing the levante or the west-facing one, not the street side.

What are the “medios auxiliares” in the quote?

Ancillary equipment: everything needed to do the work that does not stay on the facade — scaffolding, platforms, sheeting, protection, the skip for the rubble. It is a legitimate item, but it has to be broken down. If it appears as a round figure without saying what it includes, ask for the details.

Does restoring a facade cost the same as painting it?

No, because it is not the same thing being quoted. In a restoration the paint is the last item, and not always the largest: before it come the repairs to the substrate, dealing with where water gets in and, if it is being insulated, the whole insulation system. Two prices for “restoring the facade” can only be compared if they describe the same scope.

Do I need permission from the town hall?

It depends on the municipality and the work. Usually there is some paperwork when the scaffolding takes up the street or when the external appearance changes, and in historic centres there may be conditions on the colour. Ask before setting a date, and if you hire someone, make sure the quote says who will handle it.

Send us the sides of your house

The square metres from the calculator, a photo of each side and how it is reached: whether there is a pavement, a garden or access to the roof terrace. With that we know what access equipment it needs and what state the wall is in, and we send you a fixed price, in writing, so that you can compare it with any other.

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