How Often Should You Repaint Your Home’s Interior?

There are several factors that speed up the need for a home interior repaint including usage, traffic, and exposure to UV rays and cigarette smoke.

Some rooms in your home need to be repainted more frequently than others due to daily wear and tear. If you have a large family, young children, or indoor pets, you will likely need to repaint more frequently than homeowners without pets or children.

Additional conditions that may affect a home interior repaint frequency include the following.

• Hallways and corridors receive the most traffic and often experience a lot of wear and tear as a result. Fingerprints, scuff marks, and even dents and cracks below the surface of the paint are common problems in these areas. Hallways often need to be repainted every two to three years to maintain their appearance.

• Mudrooms and entrances often require frequent touch-ups due to brief, but frequent exposure to the elements and steady foot traffic. Expect to repaint these areas every two or three years depending on the level of activity in your home.

• Children’s bedrooms often double as playrooms and get a lot of abuse. Using an eggshell or satin sheen when repainting a child’s bedroom results in a more durable and washable finish. Expect to repaint a child’s bedroom every 2-3 years depending on the amount of use it receives.

• Master bedrooms may only need repainting every 5-7 years since they are usually low traffic areas. The same is true for dedicated guest rooms or other spaces where traffic and activity levels are low.

• Living and dining rooms may receive quite a bit of traffic but the activity level is often pretty low. Durable paint and room decor can also protect walls in these areas from wear and tear. Painting formal living or dining rooms may only be necessary every 5 to 7 years.

• Kitchens, bathrooms, and laundry rooms are often the busiest rooms in a typical household. The paint used in these rooms should be more durable and washable. It’s important to ensure proper ventilation in kitchens and bathrooms to prevent moisture and humidity from prematuring degrading paint. Many homeowners find that these rooms need to be repainted every 3-4 years.

• Ceiling paint tends to last about twice as long as wall paint. Over time, white ceilings may begin to develop yellow spots or look faded. You can expect a professionally painted ceiling to retain a fresh appearance for 10 years or more depending on several factors including sunlight exposure, moisture, cigarette smoke and other indoor pollutants that can damage the surfaces of ceilings and walls.

Peeling, bubbling or cracking are signs that the paint wasn’t applied properly in the first place. It could also be a sign that you’re dealing with mold, dry rot, or other moisture-related problems. It’s important to locate and correct the underlying problem before applying a new coat of paint.