Exterior paint for facades, from the Costa del Sol to the inland towns of the province, chosen according to the surface and how close the house is to the sea. Here are the four families of paint you will come across in quotes, what each one does and the order in which a facade is painted so that the new coat grips, which is what really decides how long it lasts.
Not sure yet whether your facade is single-coat render, traditional render or brick? You can tell from the pavement, and it is the first thing that decides which paint suits it.
Quotes are full of trade names of every kind, but underneath there is almost always one of these four families. What sets them apart is not quality: it is how they behave with water and with what is already on the wall.
The all-rounder exterior emulsion
An acrylic resin dispersed in water that dries to a continuous film over the wall. It is the most versatile of the four: it grips almost any well-prepared surface, comes in the full colour range and is the most affordable. Its limit is that it seals more than a mineral paint and lets less vapour out, so on a wall with moisture inside it eventually shows. With aggregate added, it is sold as a textured or masonry finish.
The one that makes water bead
Its resins make the surface water-repellent: rain runs off in droplets instead of soaking in, while the vapour from inside can still get out. Keeping outside water out without trapping the water inside is exactly what a facade needs when it takes sideways rain and holds salts, which is why it suits the coast so well. It also holds less dirt. It costs more per litre: what you pay for is performance, not colour.
The mineral paint that bonds with the wall
The binder is potassium silicate, which reacts with a mineral surface and bonds to it chemically instead of forming a skin on top. It breathes like the wall itself and, being alkaline, makes life hard for mould. The condition is strict: it only works on mortar, render or stone with no previous plastic paint. And the colour range is shorter, because it only takes mineral pigments.
The stretchy one sold as waterproofing
It forms a thick, elastic film that stretches over hairline cracks and bridges them, so the rain cannot get in through them. It has its place, but it comes at a price: it is the least breathable of the four. On a wall that already has water inside, that water stays trapped and pushes the film out in blisters. It is not the default choice; it is the answer to a specific diagnosis.
Paint is the last layer of a job that starts well before the tin is opened. How long it lasts depends above all on these four steps, and the one that gets cut short when there is a rush is usually the one that matters most.
This removes the dust, the pollution and the salts that the sea breeze has left on the surface. Moderate pressure: high pressure tears out soft mortar and drives water where it should not go. If there is green growth — the green or black patches of algae and mould that appear on the shadier side — it is treated first with a biocide and left to work for as long as the product says; painting over it only hides it for a few months. And then you wait until the wall is properly dry.
Flaking paint is scraped off and the paint that looks sound is put to the test. There is a test anyone can do: a small grid of cuts with a craft knife, strong tape pressed on top and one sharp pull. If the tape comes away clean, that paint will do as a base; if it comes away full of little squares, it will not, and whatever goes on top will come off with it. Chips and cracks are repaired at this stage, with mortar, not with paint.
If the surface is powdery — it turns to dust when you rub it — it is consolidated with a stabilising solution that soaks in and hardens that loose layer. If the render is new, you wait for it to cure for as long as the data sheet says, which is counted in weeks, not days, and prime it according to what will go on top. This step is invisible once the facade is finished, and it is usually what explains why one paint fails early and another lasts.
Almost every exterior paint data sheet asks for two coats and a minimum time between them. The second is not a touch-up: it is the coat that builds the thickness the manufacturer based the durability of the product on. The details — eaves, sills, window surrounds — are cut in by brush, and the large areas are done by roller or by machine depending on the job.
When you compare quotes, look for these four steps in writing. If one only says “paint facade, two coats”, what it leaves out is exactly what decides how long it will last.
The new paint has to get on with the old one, and not every pair does: a silicate has nothing to bond to over an acrylic, and an elastic paint put over a facade that used to breathe changes how the whole wall behaves. If you have kept the tin, the invoice or the name of whoever painted it last time, it saves testing. If not, it is worked out on the wall before anything is bought.
A smooth finish reflects the light evenly and shows every patch, every join and every ripple in the render. A rough or masonry finish hides them, at the cost of holding more dirt in its pores. On an old facade with lots of repairs, texture works in your favour; on new, flat render, smooth looks better.
The strip at the bottom takes the rain splashback, the knocks and, often, the damp rising from the ground. Painted like the rest, it is the first part to get dirty and flake. In many houses it is handled with a tougher finish or a darker shade on that band only, and it is worth deciding at the start, not once it has been painted.
No. Outside, paint has to withstand ultraviolet light, rain, temperature swings and, here, salt. Interior paint is not formulated for any of that: it fades, cracks and stops protecting much sooner. The fact that both are “plastic” paints does not make them interchangeable; what you need to check is that the tin says exterior or facades.
Both apply paint well in the hands of someone who knows how to use them. An airless sprayer is faster on large, flat areas; a roller presses the paint into the pores with every pass. On the coast there is one more factor: in the wind, spray mist travels and ends up on cars, awnings and the house next door. That is why the machine needs a calm day and everything around it covered, and the roller is the safe option when it is blowing.
An exterior paint whose resin is dissolved in solvent rather than water. According to its data sheets, it can be applied in colder and damper conditions than a water-based paint, it withstands a downpour sooner and it soaks well into surfaces that shed dust. In return it smells strongly while drying, tools are cleaned with solvent and it gives off more volatile compounds. It makes sense when the winter schedule is tight, not as a default choice.
The ground floor, with a ladder, good weather and the patience to prepare properly, is within reach of many people. Working at height is different: it needs properly erected access equipment and fall protection, and a badly built scaffold is a serious risk, not a saving. If you want to have a go, keep to the lower part and follow the steps on this page; leave the high parts to someone with the equipment.
They are not done with the facade paint. Metal takes its anti-rust primer and an enamel, and wood a preservative or an exterior enamel. But it is worth doing them at the same time as the facade or just before: sanding and painting a railing marks the wall below it, and if the facade is already finished it will need touching up. Mention them when you ask for a quote, even if they are priced separately.
Freshly applied, hardly ever: on day one both look fine. The difference lies in what you cannot see — the proportion of resin, the quality of the pigment, how it stands up to light — and it shows after years of sun and rain. So the useful question is not the brand but the type: if the quote says which family of paint it is and how many coats, you can compare; if it only says “exterior paint”, you cannot.
One photo from a distance and another close up of the current paint, where we can see whether it is intact, cracked or lifting. If you still have the tin or the invoice from last time, even better: knowing what is on the wall tells us what it will take on top without testing. With that we can point you to the right family of paint and arrange to see it and measure it.