How Often is Exterior House Painting Needed? When the paint on your home’s exterior begins to fade, chip, and crack, it brings down the entire look of your house. The property value of your home can drop, if a worn-out paint job isn’t properly addressed. It can be daunting to tackle an exterior house painting job, but it needs to be done every five to ten years, depending both on where you live and the quality of the previous exterior paint job.