House Painters Serving the Asheville Area

Compare the prep, not the price

Most of what makes a paint job last happens before the first coat. Washing, scraping, sanding the edges of old paint so they don’t telegraph through, spot-priming bare wood, swapping out a few soft boards, caulking the joints where trim meets siding. That’s most of the labor on an exterior, and it’s the part a lower quote usually trims.

So when two bids come in a thousand dollars apart, don’t assume one painter is greedy. Assume they priced different jobs. Ask every painter to write down:

• How they’ll clean it. Pressure wash, soft wash, or hand wash, and with what. A wash that’s too strong on old wood raises the grain and drives water into the siding.
• What they’ll scrape and sand. All loose paint, or “loose areas.”
• What gets primed. Bare wood and repairs at least. Some jobs call for a full primer coat.
• Who fixes rot, and how it’s billed. A line item, an hourly rate, or “we’ll let you know.”
• The product line and the number of coats. The brand alone isn’t enough, because every paint maker sells a cheap line and an expensive one.
• What’s included. Doors, shutters, the porch ceiling, the deck rails, the window sashes. These are where surprise change orders come from.

Line the answers up side by side and the price difference usually explains itself.

Built before 1978? Ask about lead first

A lot of Asheville was built before 1978, when lead paint was banned for homes. Montford, Kenilworth, Grove Park, Norwood Park, most of West Asheville and the older parts of Weaverville and Black Mountain are full of houses that still have it somewhere under the newer coats. Lead paint that’s intact and covered isn’t much of a problem. Scraping and sanding it is, because the dust is the hazard, and children are the most at risk.

North Carolina runs its own program. A painter who disturbs paint for pay in a pre-1978 home has to be certified by the state’s Health Hazards Control Unit, both as a company and for the person on site. You can check any company on the NC-certified lead firm search. Pick “Lead RRP Firm” and your county.

When we checked in October 2026, four companies on this page were on the state’s list as certified renovation firms: CertaPro, Finish Coat Painting, Grass Roots Painting and PaintAsheville. Housescapes says on its own site that it’s certified to work with lead paint. Certification has to be renewed, so look the company up yourself before you sign.

On the job, lead-safe work looks like plastic sheeting on the ground or floor, the work area closed off, misting before scraping, and no open-flame burning or power sanding without a HEPA vacuum attached. Before the work starts, the painter should give you the EPA’s Renovate Right pamphlet. If you’re getting quotes on an older house and nobody brings any of this up, bring it up yourself.

Sun on one side, mildew on the other

Houses here wear unevenly. The south and west walls take hard sun at elevation and chalk, fade and crack first. The north side, especially under hardwoods, stays damp and grows mildew. On a lot of Asheville houses one wall needs paint years before the others.

That opens two options worth asking about. One is painting only the sides that need it. It’s a fair approach if the color is still made and the other walls are sound, though the new and old paint rarely match exactly at a corner. The other is to repaint everything but spend more of the prep time on the bad walls.

Mildew has to be killed and washed off before anyone paints over it, or it grows back through the new paint. If the same wall keeps going green, look at what’s keeping it wet: shrubs tight against the siding, branches over the roof, a gutter that overflows onto that side. Fixing those is cheaper than repainting sooner. If the wash is the main job, the pressure washing companies here soft wash siding, and several of the painters do their own.

When to paint outside here

Late spring and early fall are the easy windows. The days are mild and the humidity is lower than in July and August. Summer works too, with crews starting early and following the shade around the house.

Cold is less of a hard stop than it used to be. Many current exterior paints can be applied down to 35°F. Sherwin-Williams lists that floor for its SuperPaint and Duration lines, for example. The real limit in the mountains is dew. On an October afternoon the siding can be wet by four o’clock, and paint that hasn’t set before then can streak or dry blotchy. Good crews start late and quit early in the fall, which is part of why fall jobs take longer.

Spring has its own problem. In April the yellow pine and oak pollen lands on anything wet, and a tacky coat of paint catches it.

Exterior painters book up for spring and fall. Getting quotes in the off-season puts you near the front of the line.

Rot, siding and what’s under the paint

Scraping often turns up soft wood on window sills, the bottoms of door trim, fascia boards and the ends of siding near the ground. Some painters on this page do that carpentry themselves. D.A.B. Painting, Asheville Painting Co., Custom Painting of Asheville and Dusty’s all list wood or siding repair, and Red Beard and Center Line run handyman work alongside the painting. Others will hand it off to someone else. Find out which before you sign. A painter who repairs rot as part of the job can quote it and finish it in the same visit. One who doesn’t will either paint around it or stop and wait.

Cedar siding and log homes are a different job. They move with the weather, and they usually take a penetrating stain rather than a film of paint, which is easier to refresh and doesn’t peel. Two companies here specialize in it: Pro Property Services in Waynesville and DeepWoods Log Home Services, a Perma-Chink certified contractor that works on nothing but log homes. Fiber cement siding like HardiePlank holds paint well, but it should be painted with products made for it, and caulking on its butt joints matters more than on wood.

Inside: walls, trim and cabinets

Interior painting is less sensitive to weather and easier to compare. The same prep questions still apply: patching, sanding, caulking the trim, priming stains and repairs. Ask how they protect floors and furniture, whether they move it, and how many rooms they’ll have open at once. If you’re living in the house, that last answer decides how hard the week will be.

Cabinet painting is a specialty. Doors usually come off and get sprayed somewhere clean, and the boxes are cleaned, sanded, primed and painted in place. Done well it’s a fraction of the cost of new cabinets. Done badly it chips at the handles within a year. Ask what primer and finish they use and whether they spray the doors off site. If the boxes themselves are failing, the kitchen cabinet companies here can tell you whether a refresh is worth it.

Most of the painters on this page will paint cabinets. Specialty Cabinet Finishes does nothing else. It’s a one-person business, so the owner does every job, with stain matching, glazing and distressed finishes on top of the usual painted look.

Only one company here publishes its prices. Interior Painting of Asheville, which does interiors only, lists $2 to $4 and up per square foot for a single wall, ceiling or trim repaint, $3 to $5 and up for several surfaces, and $4 to $6 and up for a whole-house interior. Those numbers apply to homes up to 1,500 square feet with standard layouts. Doors run $40 to $70 a side. Its page doesn’t say whether the square footage is the floor or the walls, so ask. Even so, it’s a useful yardstick for checking anyone else’s interior quote.

Insurance, licenses and the written quote

North Carolina doesn’t license painters as a trade. The general contractor license only applies to jobs of $40,000 or more, which few paint jobs reach. So the useful checks are different:

• Insurance. Ask for a certificate of insurance sent from the agent, showing general liability. If they have three or more employees, North Carolina requires workers’ compensation too. Ask before anyone climbs a ladder on your house, not after.
• Lead certification, for any house built before 1978. See above.
• A written quote listing the prep, products, coats, colors, areas included, start window, payment schedule and any warranty.

Our step-by-step guide to checking a contractor covers the license lookups for the trades that do need one.

The companies on this page

Asheville

D.A.B. Painting, started by David Ballew in 1993. Historic restoration is the specialty: stripping, wood and plaster repair, and a 2013 Griffin Award from the Preservation Society of Asheville and Buncombe County.

CertaPro Painters of Asheville and Western NC, on Mount Carmel Road. The local office of a national franchise, independently owned. Interior, exterior, commercial and cabinets. On the state lead-safe list.

Finish Coat Painting, owner Eric Morris, more than 25 years in the trade. Mostly residential around Asheville and Biltmore. On the state lead-safe list.

Grass Roots Painting, started by Eric Grass in 2020. Interior and exterior, cabinets and deck restoration. On the state lead-safe list.

Housescapes, in North Asheville, run by Billie Williams. Interior and exterior, cabinets, and plaster repair. Works for homeowners, architects, designers and builders.

Burnett Painting, owner Kurt Dwyer, more than 25 years in the trade. Residential interior and exterior, cabinets and decks.

Center Line Painting, founded 2016. An authorized Romabio applicator for limewash and mineral paint, with drywall and handyman work on the side.

Custom Painting of Asheville, on Ferry Road, with its own in-house crew. Residential and commercial, plus siding repair.

Dusty’s Painting Plus, a one-man operation with more than 30 years in. Wallpaper hanging and plaster repair along with paint.

Interior Painting of Asheville, interiors only, and the one company here that publishes its prices.

Specialty Cabinet Finishes, cabinets only, one person.

Candler

Asheville Painting Co., in Buncombe County since 2000. Its painters are its own employees, not subcontractors. Interior, exterior, cabinets and rot repair.

Arden and Fletcher

PaintAsheville, in Arden, with a crew of about 50 painters. Interior, exterior, commercial and cabinets. On the state lead-safe list.

Celtic Painting Company, in Arden. Bills itself as a green painting company and hands customers a record of the paints and colors used when the job is done.

Pinon Painting, in Arden since 1998. Candido Pinon still walks most jobs himself. Painting, drywall and pressure washing.

Red Beard Painting and Handyman, in Fletcher since 2015. Painting plus the small repairs that come up around it.

Mills River

H&M Painting Services, with staining and garage floor coatings alongside interior and exterior work.

Hendersonville and Flat Rock

Perfect Color Painting, on 5th Avenue West, more than 20 years in. Open seven days, with roof cleaning and epoxy coatings.

A2 Painting, a father and son, founded 2023. Interior, exterior and deck staining, with a two-year workmanship warranty.

Sterling Property Services, two partners in Flat Rock who paint and consult on color.

Waynesville

Pro Property Services, a log home specialist: log staining, chinking and media blasting, plus house painting.

Log homes across the region

DeepWoods Log Home Services, log homes only, family-owned since 2012 and a Perma-Chink certified contractor. Staining, chinking, media blasting and log repair across WNC, with crews that also work in Upstate South Carolina and East Tennessee.

How companies get listed here

Almost every business on this page is independent and based in Western North Carolina. CertaPro is the exception: it’s a national franchise with a locally owned Asheville office, and its listing says so. We generally leave out national franchises and chains. That isn’t because they can’t paint a house. It’s because there are already plenty of places to find them.

Listings are free. Businesses can claim a listing to keep their details current, and a few pay for a featured slot, which moves them up the page and is labeled wherever it appears. Nothing else about the order is for sale. We don’t sell your contact information or charge these companies per lead.

When you’re ready, pick three painters near you and ask each one the same things: what the prep includes, which product line and how many coats, who fixes the rot, and, if the house is older than 1978, their state lead certification number. If the exterior mostly needs a wash, start with the pressure washing companies. If the walls need more patching than paint, drywall contractors are listed too.

Frequently asked questions

• Do house painters need a license in North Carolina?

  Not a painting license. North Carolina doesn't license painters as a trade. The one license that can come into play is the general contractor license, which the state requires on any job of $40,000 or more. Most paint jobs come in well under that, so what you check instead is insurance and, on an older house, lead certification. Ask for a certificate of insurance showing general liability, and workers' compensation if they have employees. North Carolina requires workers' comp once a business has three or more employees.

• My house was built before 1978. What changes?

  The painter has to be certified to work on it. In North Carolina that certification comes from the state's Health Hazards Control Unit, which certifies both the company and the people doing the work, and keeps a public database you can search. Before work starts, the painter should hand you the EPA's Renovate Right pamphlet. On the job you should see plastic on the ground or floor, the work area closed off, and no dry power sanding or open-flame stripping. If a painter doesn't bring any of this up on a pre-1978 house, ask them about it.

• When is the best time to paint a house exterior in Asheville?

  Late spring and early fall are the easy windows. Days are mild and the humidity is lower than in midsummer. Many current exterior paints can go on down to 35°F, so the cold is less of a hard stop than it used to be. Dew is the real limit. On a fall night in the mountains the siding gets wet by late afternoon, and paint that hasn't set by then can streak or lose its sheen. Good crews start late and quit early in October. April has its own problem, when the yellow pollen lands on anything wet.

• How much does it cost to paint a house interior in Asheville?

  Most painters quote after a walkthrough, but one company here publishes its numbers. Interior Painting of Asheville lists $2 to $4 and up per square foot for a single wall, ceiling or trim repaint, $3 to $5 and up for several surfaces, and $4 to $6 and up for a whole-house interior. Those prices are for homes up to 1,500 square feet with standard layouts. Doors are $40 to $70 a side. Ask whether the square footage means floor or wall area. Prep, repairs, ceiling height and color changes all move the number.

• Why are painting quotes so far apart?

  Because they usually describe different jobs. One quote might include washing, scraping every loose edge, spot-priming bare wood, replacing a few rotten boards, caulking every joint and two coats. The cheaper one might cover one coat over whatever's there. Ask each painter to put the prep in writing, item by item, with the number of coats and the product line. Then you're comparing like with like.

• What about the mildew on the north side of my house?

  It has to be killed and washed off before anyone paints. Paint over mildew and it grows back through the new coat, usually within a season or two. A good painter washes with a mildewcide, lets the siding dry, and then primes. If the same wall keeps going green, look at what's causing it. Overhanging trees, shrubs against the siding and gutters that spill over all keep a wall wet.

• Should I paint or stain a log home or cedar siding?

  Stain, in most cases. Logs and rough-sawn cedar move with the weather, and a film of paint cracks and peels on them where a penetrating stain weathers more gradually and is easier to redo. Recoat timing depends on sun exposure more than the calendar, and the south and west walls go first. Ask a painter whether they do log and stain work as a regular part of the business. It's a different job from painting lap siding. Pro Property Services in Waynesville and DeepWoods Log Home Services are the log home specialists on this page.