How long does it take to paint a house?
Days on site for rooms, whole interiors, cabinets and exteriors, the drying and recoat times printed on real product data sheets, and the Denver weather numbers we plan exterior jobs around.
By Painter Hotline · Updated
A professional crew of three paints a typical one- or two-story Front Range exterior in 3 to 5 working days, plus any weather days. One room takes about a day, a whole interior 3 days to two weeks, and kitchen cabinets 3 to 5 days. Preparation, recoat times and overnight lows decide where in each range you land.
How many days will your project take?
Pick the job and the condition it is in. The planner uses the same rules of thumb we use to put a project on the calendar. It is a planning number, not a quote; a walkthrough or a set of photos tightens it up.
How long does each kind of painting job take?
These are the ranges we schedule with on the Front Range. They assume a normal crew (two painters inside, three outside), furniture moved to the middle of the room, and a homeowner who has picked colors before day one. Picking colors on the morning of the job is the most common way a two-day project becomes three.
| Project | Days on site | What pushes it longer |
|---|---|---|
| One bedroom, walls and trim | 1 day | Ceiling included, lots of patching, dark color over light |
| Accent wall or powder room | Half a day | Wallpaper removal (often a day by itself) |
| Main floor of a typical house | 2–4 days | Open stairwells, vaulted ceilings, many doors |
| Whole interior, walls, ceilings and trim | 3 days to 2 weeks | Square footage, ceiling height, trim detail, repairs |
| Kitchen cabinets, sprayed | 3–5 days | Door count, grain filling, a third coat for dark colors |
| Exterior, one- or two-story house | 3–5 days | Peeling paint, rotten trim, three stories, weather |
| Exterior, large or steep-lot home | 6–10 days | Lifts and staging, elastomeric stucco systems, wind |
| Deck or fence stain | 2–3 days | The wood has to dry after washing before stain goes on |
Notice what the ranges have in common: the painting itself is rarely the slow part. On most exteriors, washing, scraping, sanding, caulking and spot-priming take as long as the finish coats. Inside, it is moving furniture, masking, filling nail holes and sanding patches. A crew that quotes a two-story house in two days is usually skipping something you will see in two winters.
How long does paint need between coats?
Every product data sheet prints a recoat time, and it is always tied to a temperature and humidity. That fine print is what makes an October exterior take longer than the same house in June. Here is what three Sherwin-Williams data sheets actually say:
| Product | Dry to touch | Recoat | Conditions printed on the sheet |
|---|---|---|---|
| Emerald Interior Latex Satin | 1 hour | 4 hours | At 77°F and 50% humidity; apply above 50°F |
| Duration Exterior Acrylic, 45°F and up | 1 hour | 4 hours | At 50% humidity; ready for service overnight |
| Duration Exterior Acrylic, 35–45°F | 2 hours | 24–48 hours | Same product, cold weather |
| ConFlex SherLastic elastomeric (stucco) | — | 24 hours | Apply between 50°F and 100°F |
Two things follow. First, a two-coat interior can be finished in one day, because a 4-hour recoat leaves time for a second coat before the crew leaves. Second, an exterior painted in cool weather can lose a full day between coats, and an elastomeric stucco system always needs an overnight between its two coats. That is why the planner above adds a day for elastomeric.
The Duration sheet also says the air, surface and paint must be above 35°F and at least 5°F above the dew point, that you should not paint if rain or snow is expected within 2 to 3 hours, and that you should not apply it if temperatures may drop below 35°F within 48 hours. That last line is the one that rules out a lot of late-fall days on the Front Range: the afternoon can be 60 degrees and sunny, and the forecast low two nights later still decides it.
Dry is not the same as cured. Latex paint keeps hardening for weeks after it is dry to the touch, which is why we ask people to go easy on scrubbing new walls and to give freshly painted doors and windows a little time before they close them tight. Our winter interior guide covers the heat and fresh-air side of that for cold months.
How many weather days should you plan for on an exterior?
For Denver, NOAA’s 1991–2020 climate normals (Denver International Airport) give a useful picture of what a crew is up against each month. Two columns matter most: how many days get a tenth of an inch of rain or more, which usually stops exterior work for that day, and how many nights drop to freezing.
| Month | Avg high | Avg low | Days with 0.10″+ rain | Nights at or below 32°F |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| April | 61.7°F | 33.9°F | 4.4 | 13.2 |
| May | 71.2°F | 43.6°F | 5.3 | 2.9 |
| June | 83.4°F | 53.0°F | 4.2 | 0 |
| July | 89.9°F | 60.2°F | 4.2 | 0 |
| August | 87.5°F | 58.3°F | 3.6 | 0 |
| September | 79.6°F | 50.0°F | 2.7 | 0.7 |
| October | 65.3°F | 37.0°F | 2.5 | 9.2 |
| November | 52.9°F | 26.0°F | 1.8 | 22.7 |
May is the wettest month of the exterior season, which surprises people who think of it as the start of summer. September is the sweet spot: fewer wet days than any month from May to August, nights still mostly above freezing, and afternoons cool enough that paint does not flash dry. October has the fewest rainy days of the season but averages about nine freezing nights, so it works with the right product and a crew that reads the overnight forecast.
Summer brings its own delay. Afternoon thunderstorms on the Front Range often roll in after lunch, and a crew that starts at 7 a.m. can usually finish a wall before the clouds build. The Duration sheet’s warning against painting in direct sun matters here too: on a July afternoon the crew works whichever walls are out of the sun, and the south side waits for the next morning.
Higher up, the window shrinks. Our town pages for Evergreen and Breckenridge explain why mountain exteriors are booked early and why north walls can stay wet into June.
What does a typical exterior week look like?
- Day 1, wash. Pressure washing or hand washing takes the morning. The rest of the day is drying time; we do not paint wet siding, because paint over trapped moisture is the start of most peeling.
- Day 2, prep. Scrape and sand anything loose, set popped nails, cut out failed caulk and re-caulk, and spot-prime bare wood. On a house in rough shape, this is two or three days instead of one. On a pre-1978 house it includes lead-safe containment; see what that adds.
- Day 3, first body coat. Masking, then the body color, side by side, working with the shade.
- Day 4, second coat and trim. The second body coat, then fascia, soffits, window and door trim.
- Day 5, doors, details and walk-through. Front door, garage door, touch-ups, cleanup, and a walk around the house with you before we call it done.
A sound house that only needs a color refresh can drop a day. A three-story house on a slope, rotten fascia that needs carpentry, or a week of afternoon storms can add three.
How long does it take to paint a room, or a whole interior?
A standard bedroom with walls and trim is a one-day job for two painters: move and cover, patch and sand, cut in and roll the first coat, a second coat after the 4-hour recoat window, then trim and cleanup. Add the ceiling and it is a long day or a short second one.
A whole interior scales with three things more than square footage: how many rooms change color, how much trim there is, and how tall the walls are. A two-story entry or a stairwell with a 16-foot wall needs planks or a scaffold and can take most of a day on its own. Kitchens and bathrooms are small but slow, because of all the cutting in around cabinets, tile and fixtures.
We usually work room by room so you are never without a bedroom and a bathroom for long. If you are painting before a move or a listing, tell us the date that matters; our page on painting before you sell covers which rooms buyers notice first.
Cabinets are their own schedule
Cabinet refinishing takes 3 to 5 days because the doors and drawer fronts come off, get cleaned, sanded, primed and sprayed off site or in a set-up area, and need recoat time between each layer. The boxes are done in place. Plan on a few days of eating out or cooking with a microwave.
How far ahead should you book?
The job itself is days; the wait to start can be weeks. Exterior calendars on the Front Range fill from late winter for May and June starts, and again for September. Interior work spreads through the year, with a run before the holidays. As a rough guide, call four to eight weeks before the month you want for an exterior, and two to four weeks ahead for interiors.
The fastest way to get on the calendar is a written estimate you can say yes to. Send a few photos through our virtual estimate and you will usually have a number within a business day. If you are still working out quantities for a project you plan to paint yourself, our exterior paint calculator does the gallons.
Time is also most of the cost. Angi’s Denver exterior guide lists painter labor at $26 to $102 an hour per painter, and federal wage data put the median Denver-area painter wage at $27.92 an hour. Every day of prep you skip is cheaper on the invoice and more expensive when the paint fails early. Our cost guide lays out the published ranges.
Painting timeline questions
How long does it take to paint the outside of a 2,000 square foot house?
With a crew of three, plan on about 4 working days for a two-story, 2,000 square foot house with siding in fair shape: a wash day, a prep day, and two days of body and trim coats. Peeling paint or rotten trim adds one to three days, and rain or a cold snap adds weather days on top.
How long should exterior paint dry before it rains?
Sherwin-Williams’ Duration data sheet says not to apply it if rain or snow is expected within 2 to 3 hours. That is the minimum. We look at the hourly forecast every morning, start on the side that will be in the clear longest, and stop early rather than leave a fresh wall in the path of an afternoon storm.
Can you paint a house exterior in October in Colorado?
Often, yes. NOAA’s normals give Denver about 2.5 rainy days in October, the fewest of the season, but also about nine freezing nights. Low-temperature paints allow application down to 35°F, as long as it will not drop below 35°F within 48 hours, so October work depends on the forecast lows, not the afternoon high.
How long do you wait between coats of paint?
Follow the recoat time on the can. Sherwin-Williams lists 4 hours for its Emerald interior paint at 77°F and for Duration exterior paint at 45°F and above. In cold weather the same exterior paint needs 24 to 48 hours, and an elastomeric stucco coating needs 24 hours between coats in any weather.
Do I need to leave the house while you paint inside?
Usually not. We work room by room, keep a path clear and ventilate as we go, and most people stay home. The exceptions are cabinet jobs, which take the kitchen out of use for several days, and pre-1978 homes with young children, where interior lead-safe work can make staying elsewhere the better choice for a few days.
Why do some painters quote a whole exterior in one or two days?
Usually by skipping the slow parts. Washing needs drying time, scraping and caulking take a full day on most houses, and two coats need a recoat interval. A one-day exterior on a two-story house is typically one sprayed coat over unwashed siding. It looks fine when the truck pulls away and starts peeling early.
How soon can I hang pictures and wash new walls?
Paint is dry to the touch in about an hour, but it keeps curing for weeks. We suggest waiting a few days before rehanging pictures with adhesive strips or pushing furniture tight against walls, and a couple of weeks before scrubbing. A gentle wipe with water is fine sooner.
Sources
Drying times and weather figures come from the documents listed. Days-on-site ranges are Painter Hotline’s own scheduling ranges. Checked October 25, 2026.
- Duration Exterior Acrylic Flat, K32 Series, product data sheet, Sherwin-Williams, 08/2020 (public copy filed with the City of Detroit): touch and recoat times at 35–45°F and 45°F+, rain and dew-point limits, 48-hour temperature rule, direct-sun note.
- Emerald Interior Latex Satin, K37 Series, product data sheet, Sherwin-Williams, 11/2023: touch 1 hour, recoat 4 hours at 77°F and 50% RH, apply above 50°F.
- Elastomeric product guide, Sherwin-Williams: ConFlex SherLastic recoat 24 hours, application 50–100°F.
- U.S. monthly climate normals 1991–2020, Denver International Airport, NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information: average highs and lows, days with 0.10 inch or more of precipitation, nights at or below 32°F.
- How much does it cost to paint a house exterior in Denver, CO?, Angi, updated November 13, 2025: labor $26–$102 per hour per painter.
- Painters, construction and maintenance: local wages, O*NET OnLine (BLS OEWS 2025): Denver-Aurora-Centennial median $27.92 per hour.
Want an actual start date?
Send a few photos or book a walkthrough and we will send a written estimate with a realistic schedule for your project. Both are free.
Prefer to talk it through? 720-208-5645