A free maintenance tool
What needs
doing next?
Paint does not fail on a schedule, but it does fail in a predictable window. Tell the planner when each surface was last done and it will show you what to look at this spring, what can wait, and what is quietly overdue.
Intervals come from what we see on Fife houses, not from a manufacturer’s tin.
Your house
When was it
last painted?
Enter the year for what you know, guess for what you do not. The planner shows the window in which each surface will want attention and what to look for in the meantime.
| Surface | Last painted | Typical life | Next window | Status | Watch for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Walls, bedrooms and living rooms | 7 to 10 years | · | Enter a year | Scuffs at hand height, colour change behind pictures | |
| Walls, hall, stairs and kitchen | 4 to 6 years | · | Enter a year | Marks that no longer wash off | |
| Interior woodwork | 8 to 12 years | · | Enter a year | Chipped edges, yellowing white | |
| Exterior windows and doors, oil gloss | 5 to 7 years | · | Enter a year | Chalking, hairline cracks at the putty line | |
| Front door | 3 to 5 years | · | Enter a year | Fading and cracking in sun | |
| Cement render in masonry paint | 10 to 15 years | · | Enter a year | Chalking, algae, hairline cracks | |
| Lime harling in limewash | 5 to 8 years | · | Enter a year | Patchiness, bare lime showing | |
| Lime harling in mineral paint | 15 to 20 years | · | Enter a year | Very little | |
| Cast iron gutters and railings | 5 to 8 years | · | Enter a year | Rust weeping at joints | |
| Fascias and soffits | 6 to 10 years | · | Enter a year | Flaking below gutter overflows |
Intervals assume a properly prepared and applied system. A rushed job or a strong colour in full sun can halve them. An annual ten minute walk round, described in the guide below, can add a third.
Asked on the doorstep
How often
is often enough?
- How often should exterior windows be painted?
- A properly prepared oil gloss system lasts five to seven years on the Fife coast, less on a south facing elevation in full sun. The tell is dull sheen and hairline cracks at the putty line. Recoat then, before the timber is exposed, and the job is a wash, a sand and two coats rather than a strip.
- Why does coastal exposure matter?
- Salt attracts moisture, sun breaks down binder, and wind drives rain into every joint. A house on the front at Anstruther will need its windows painted a year or two sooner than the same house half a mile inland. The planner shortens exterior intervals for exposed sites.
- Is it cheaper to wait until paint has failed?
- No. Recoating sound paint is a third of the cost of stripping failed paint back to bare wood and starting again, and the timber underneath stays protected the whole time. The expensive mistake is the extra two years.
- Does limewash really need doing every few years?
- A thin refresh coat, yes, every five to eight years. It is a morning’s work per elevation with a big brush and it keeps the harling protected. Mineral silicate paint on the same wall stretches that to fifteen or twenty years if you prefer fewer, larger jobs.
When it is time
Book the spring,
not the emergency.
Exterior work in Fife has a season, and it fills up. If the planner says your windows are in their window, get in touch over the winter and we will pencil a dry week in May.
A seasonal reminder of what to look at, in every letter.