The frequency of how often the interior and exterior needs to be painted depends on several factors. The most common reason for interior painting is to update colours, or when moving into a new house and want to change the current colours to personalize it, while the exterior of a home needs to painted more frequently to maintain its curb appeal and to protect it from the environmental elements of extreme heat or sun exposure as well as the snow and frigid temperatures that will cause paint colours to fade, paint to peel, crack or flake.
Here are a few tips on how often you should paint the interior and exterior of your house.
How Often Does Interior of House Need To Be Painted
While the most popular reason for interior painting is to update the colors of a room, another good reason is for general upkeep to ensure your home always looks great. While some rooms may need more frequent repainting due to daily wear and tear. Fore example the entrance/hallway areas tend to take a lot of the daily beatings of coming and going in and out of the house. Shoes and boots are thrown off hitting the walls and leaving scuff marks, or perhaps a new piece of furniture has to be brought in and it scrapes the walls of the entry way.
Every room in the house is defined by its own colour palette and serves its own purpose. While bedrooms and dining rooms may not require as frequent repainting as the kitchen or bathrooms or even the living room or family room because bedrooms are the quite spaces in our homes they tend to need to be painted less often. Bathrooms and kitchens, may need to be painted more frequent because of the higher level of moisture and humidity created in these rooms and if the proper paint or primer is not used, more paint problems that require repainting may occur.
Here’s a quick breakdown on how often to paint every room or area of your home.
Entrance Hallway and Corridor
The entrance, hallway or corridor is the main area of every home. The constant traffic of the in and out means you will see a lot more dents, scuff marks, and other wear and tear in these areas. Paint the entrance, hallways and corridors every 2 to 3 years, to ensure everything looks fresh, new and well maintained.
Bonus Tip : We recommend using high quality paint that is durable and will endure washing since this area is highly trafficked. An eggshell paint finish is commonly used by homeowner and recommended by painting contractors. We also recommend that drywall repairs are taken care of before any painting. Making sure the dents are patched will ensure the best possible end result.
Living Room and Dining Room
Even though the living room or family room along with the dining room are common open concept areas and are used everyday, they don’t take quite the beating as the hallway or entrance, therefore paint tends to last a lot longer.
Other than wanting to update the paint colours or adding an accent focal wall the living room dining room or family room areas can be painted every 5 to 7 years.
Kitchen, Bathrooms and Laundry Room
The kitchen is the central hub of every home and family. Second busiest rooms in the house are the bathrooms and laundry room areas. These need to be painted with the best quality paint finish for kitchens and bathrooms to prevent build up of mold or mildew.
Preparing the walls before painting with a high quality and appropriate paint primer is fundamental when painting these rooms with higher levels of moisture and humidity. We always use and highly recommend Benjamin Moore’s Aura Bath & Spa as it has the best coverage, gives the best durability and provides the best protection from the build up of mold and mildew. We recommend painting these rooms every 3 to 4 years.
Bonus Tip: Install a bathroom fan or ceiling fan in kitchen and laundry room or open windows to keep air circulating in high moisture dense rooms.
Bedrooms
Bedrooms are the sanctuary of every household and do not require painting very often unless you are wanting to change the look and update to a modern or trending paint colour.
In general, bedrooms can be painted every 2 to 3 years but quite honestly can go up to five unless as previously mentioned you want to change the look earlier than the 5 year mark.
Because these rooms do not tend to see much foot traffic, unlike the main areas of the home like kitchen, living/family room areas and bathrooms and corridors the frequency of painting the bedrooms is not a must or a standard but more a personal choice.
The exception would be if the bedroom is a child’s room as the walls in kid’s rooms will most likely see more wear and tear than any tweenager or adult. Recommended paint finishes to use that will stand the test of time and be able to be washable and scrubble as we all know children’s creative minds often get transferred to paintings and drawings on the walls of their very room. For children’s bedrooms we might tend to recommend the 2 to 3 year interval before needing to repaint.
How Often Does Exterior of House Need To Be Painted
The exterior painting of any home here in Ottawa is recommended to keep it looking well taken care of and protect any wood elements on the exterior such as window frames or door frames and front doors.
The Spring and Summer maintenance and Fall and Winter maintenance are the perfect ways to show your home’s exterior the TLC it deserves. Our homes are exposed to harsh elements of the environment each year, the wood around windows, doors and any patio decks or fences would need to be painted more often than the interior.
We recommend painting the exterior of your house at least every 3 to 5 years to keep it’s beauty and curb appeal.
For help with repairing and painting your walls in the Ottawa area, call 613-656-5865 or email us through our contact form. Get a painting estimate and quote from house painters that can recommend the frequency for interior and exterior painting services so that all the proper TLC and maintenance is given to your home.
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PG PAINT & DESIGN
This post was originally publised on Oct 24, 2015 at 18:24 and updated on Feb 07, 2020 11:00
