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Exterior Painting and Staining Cost in Ontario (2026): $3.50 a Square Foot to Paint, $4.50 to Stain Cedar, Painting Vinyl and Fibre Cement, Recoating Stucco, and When Paint Beats Replacement
Exterior Finishes
Painting the Outside: $3.50 a Square Foot Buys Ten More Years From Most Siding, and Decides Whether Cedar Was a Good Idea
Painting or staining the outside of a house in Ontario runs $3.50 a square foot of net wall for two coats on siding, $4.50 for stain on cedar, before HST. On an 1,800 sq ft wall that is $6,300 against $30,000 and up to replace the siding, which is why paint is the first question on any tired exterior and not the last. The catch is the substrate: paint on wood is maintenance, paint on fibre cement is a 15-year event, paint on vinyl is a colour rule, and paint on stucco is a different trade. Here is each one, and the thirty-year arithmetic that makes the decision for you.
The numbers
$3.50paint, two coats, per sq ft of wall
$4.50cedar stain, per sq ft
$6,300an 1,800 sq ft wall painted, before HST
$7,119the same with HST
| Substrate | Per sq ft | How often | What to know |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wood siding, painted | $3.50 | 7 to 10 years | Wash, scrape, spot prime, two coats of 100% acrylic. Bare, weathered wood needs a full prime first. |
| Cedar, stained | $4.50 | 4 to 7 years, semi-transparent; longer for solid stain | Stain soaks in and wears away rather than peeling. South and west walls go first. |
| Fibre cement, factory finished | $3.50 | First repaint about year 15, then 10 to 15 | Holds paint better than anything on this list; the factory coat is the one to keep as long as you can. |
| Engineered wood siding | $3.50 | 10 to 12 years | Prefinished from the factory; repaint like wood, with attention to the cut ends. |
| Vinyl | $3.50 | 8 to 10 years | Vinyl-safe paint, same or lighter colour only. A dark colour on light vinyl buckles the panels in the sun. |
| Acrylic stucco, painted | $3.50 | 15 to 20 years | Elastomeric or masonry acrylic. Painting an acrylic finish changes its texture a little and its colour a lot; recoating with new finish is a stucco job. |
| Brick and stone | Do not | Never | Paint seals the face and the freeze-thaw does the rest. Brick is the finish that has no paint line, which is a lot of its value. |
Rates are per square foot of net wall and include washing, scraping and spot priming of a normal weathered surface. Trim is in the wall rate at these numbers. Stripping to bare wood, lead paint on a pre-1980 house and a three-storey wall are quoted on the house, not the sheet.
Painting vinyl: the colour rule
Vinyl can be painted and it holds up, with one rule that cannot be bent. The panel expands and contracts with heat, and it was made to do that at the heat its original colour absorbs. Paint it darker and the wall absorbs more sun, gets hotter than the panel was designed for, and the panels buckle and pull out of the J-channel on the first hot afternoon. The paint makers publish a list of vinyl-safe colours, which are the ones with a light reflectance at or above the original, and a painter who knows vinyl will not go off the list no matter how nice the charcoal looks.
So: faded beige vinyl can be painted a fresh beige, a light grey, a white, an off-white, for $3.50 a square foot, and it looks like new siding for eight or ten years. It cannot be painted navy. If navy is the point, that is a new siding job, and the siding hub has what the 0.046 in. dark panels cost, because the makers now sell vinyl that is made to run dark from the start.
Fibre cement, wood and stucco
Fibre cement takes paint better than any wood, because it does not move, swell or bleed tannins. The factory finish is a baked-on coating that is the best paint the wall will ever have, and the first repaint comes at about 15 years, usually because the colour is tired rather than because the coating failed. Two coats of exterior acrylic at $3.50 after a wash, and the cut ends and any touch-up primer the installer missed are the only places it will have let go. A fibre cement house painted twice in thirty years has had $7 a square foot of paint on top of its $18 of siding.
Wood is the maintenance finish. Painted wood siding wants a wash, a scrape and two coats every 7 to 10 years, sooner on the south wall, and once the paint has been let go to bare wood the job doubles because the whole wall needs priming. Cedar with a semi-transparent stain is $4.50 every 4 to 7 years; the stain does not peel, it wears, and a wall that is recoated on time is a two-day job while a wall that was left for twelve years is a stripping job. Lumber shrinks like bacon after you fry it, and every shrink opens a seam the paint has to bridge.
Stucco is two different conversations. A cement stucco wall, or an acrylic wall that is sound and just faded, can be painted with an elastomeric or masonry acrylic at $3.50 and it bridges hairline cracks and lasts 15 to 20 years. An acrylic finish that is cracked, delaminating or holding water is not a painting job, it is a stucco repair and recoat, and the stucco hub prices that. Painting over a stucco problem seals the problem in with the moisture, and the next conversation is a lot more than $3.50.
Thirty years, per square foot of wall
| Finish, mid grade | Installed | Maintenance over 30 years | 30-year total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vinyl | $9.50 | $0, or one paint at year 15: $3.50 | $9.50 to $13.00 |
| Acrylic stucco on a frame wall | $15.00 | One paint at about year 20: $3.50 | $18.50 |
| Fibre cement | $18.00 | One paint at year 15: $3.50 | $21.50 |
| Engineered wood | $17.00 | Two paints, years 11 and 22: $7.00 | $24.00 |
| Brick veneer | $36.00 | $0 | $36.00 |
| Cedar, stained | $20.00 | Five stains at $4.50: $22.50 | $42.50 |
Installed rates are from the schedule in the exterior cladding cost calculator, which can carry a repaint cycle in the comparison. The cedar line is why I steer people who love the look toward prefinished wood or an engineered product with a wood face, and why brick at twice the price of fibre cement is not twice the price by year 30.
When paint is worth it, and when it is not
- Worth it: sound siding, a tired colour, no water problem. An 1,800 sq ft wall at $3.50 is $6,300, and a tenth of a re-side. Do it.
- Worth it: fibre cement or engineered wood at 12 to 15 years, before the factory coat has chalked through. Paint on a sound coating lasts; paint on a failed one is a year.
- Not worth it: vinyl that is brittle, cracked or rippled. Paint does not fix tight nailing or 30-year-old plastic, and the painter is the one who finds out it is brittle, with his ladder.
- Not worth it: wood siding with rot, cupping or open seams, or any wall with stains inside. The paint seals the water in. Find out why the wall is wet first; the wall protection hub is where that starts.
- Not ever: brick, stone, or an acrylic stucco wall that is holding water.
The hiring side is the same as for interior painters, and how to hire a painting contractor covers it; outside, add a question about vinyl-safe colours and one about how he handles lead paint on an older house.
Questions people ask
How much does it cost to paint the exterior of a house in Ontario?
About $3.50 a square foot of net wall for two coats on siding, so $6,300 on an 1,800 sq ft two-storey wall and $8,400 on a 2,400 sq ft one, before HST. Cedar stain is $4.50. Stripping to bare wood, lead paint and three-storey walls are priced on the house.
Can vinyl siding be painted?
Yes, with a vinyl-safe acrylic in the same colour or a lighter one. A darker colour makes the panels absorb more heat than they were made for and they buckle. Expect 8 to 10 years from the paint on sound vinyl.
How often does fibre cement siding need painting?
The factory finish is good for about 15 years, then every 10 to 15 after that. It holds paint better than wood because it does not move or bleed, and the repaint is the standard $3.50 rate.
Is it cheaper to paint siding or replace it?
Painting is about a tenth of replacing: $3.50 a square foot against $9.50 for new vinyl plus tearoff, or $18 and up for fibre cement. If the siding is sound and dry, paint. If it is brittle, rotten or hiding a leak, paint is money spent twice.
Can you paint stucco?
Sound stucco, yes, with an elastomeric or masonry acrylic at about $3.50, lasting 15 to 20 years. Cracked, delaminating or wet acrylic stucco is a repair and recoat job, not a paint job, and painting it seals the water in.
Compare paint with replacement
The exterior cladding cost calculator prices new siding for your walls at the same rates as this page, so the paint-or-replace decision is two numbers side by side. If you have painting quotes, or a siding quote from someone who said paint would not work, the $99 review reads them against the substrate you actually have.
Sources and further reading
- James Hardie installation instructions: the clearances, fastening, flashing and primed-cut rules a fibre-cement warranty depends on; the installer is held to this sheet.
- LP SmartSide: engineered wood siding and trim: the application instructions, clearances and the finish warranty.
- Vinyl Siding Institute: the installation manual every vinyl warranty points to: loose nailing, expansion gaps, laps and the J-channel details.
