A stone fronted home with a shingled mansard roof, repainted top to bottom. The stone stayed, everything above it changed color, and the house stopped looking like the decade it was built in.
What the house was
Stone base, shingled mansard, and siding in a pale tan that had gone chalky. The stonework was in good condition and had nothing wrong with it, which is exactly the situation where a repaint earns its money. The house did not need rebuilding. It needed everything that was not stone to stop fighting the stone.
BeforeAfterThe same elevation, before and after. Drag the handle to compare.
Why the color went dark
A deep navy against a light, warm, multi-tone stone does two things at once. It stops the eye trying to match the siding color to the stone, which is a fight nobody wins, and it turns the stone into the feature rather than the background. Going lighter would have kept the argument going.
The garage doors went dark with the siding rather than staying white. A white garage door on a dark house reads as two separate decisions, and on this elevation it was the largest flat surface in view.
BeforeAfterThe side elevation and the mansard roof, before and after.
The preparation, which is where the money actually goes
Exteriors fail at the edges. Fascia, soffit ends, the bottom courses near grade and the joints around windows are where water gets in and where a coating starts to let go, and all of them were addressed before a finish coat went near the house.
The full sequence was pressure wash, dry, scrape anything already lifting, spot prime bare wood, caulk the joints, then coat. On a chalked surface the wash is not a courtesy. Paint over chalk is paint over a release agent, and it will look correct for one season and then stop.
Scheduling around the weather, not the calendar
Exterior coatings cure to a temperature and humidity range rather than to a date. This one was scheduled against overnight lows and dew point, which is why exterior work here occasionally moves a day. A moved day is a better outcome than a film that never fully cures and then fails early.
What this kind of project involves
This is exterior painting in the drywall and paint category. It is measured on site, quoted as a written itemized bid, and the pressure wash is included rather than added. If your house has good masonry and tired everything-else, it is worth getting a number before assuming the answer is siding.
Questions we get asked
Can you paint over stone?
On this house the stone was left alone deliberately. Painting masonry is a different conversation and it is close to irreversible, so it gets discussed on site rather than assumed.
How long does a full exterior take?
It depends on the elevation count, the prep required and the weather window. Cory gives a real date range at the walkthrough.
Do the garage doors cost extra?
They are in the bid rather than a surprise line. On a dark scheme they usually should be included, because a white door on a dark house undoes the change.
Want a project like this?Start with a walkthrough.
Cory measures on site, works through the decisions with you, and sends a written itemized bid.