The obvious and most vague answer to this question would be it depends on the size because it really does. However, with the right crew, tools and systems in place you can be a lot more efficient than the company down the street. The main factor other than the size of the home would be how many guys do you have working on a house at the same time. For these examples and standards were going to be talking about a typical 3-man crew. The crew lead will be an experienced master painter, 2nd in line will be a journeyman and then our last guy will have only a year or two of experience. All guys can work on ladders. (Some paint crews have men that are not allowed or don't perform work on ladders for personal or logistical reasons) This is pretty realistic though because an efficient paint crew will typically have an array of skills and experience levels.
The amount of work that needs to be done on the home will also play a huge factor. Are you doing one coat or two? How much prep work is needed? How much high ladder work has to be done? The more the crew has to prep, move and climb up ladders the longer it will take. While working high up on ladders you work a little slower than you would working on a six-foot ladder. There are a lot of times where the prep work takes longer than the actual painting. This is usually a good thing because the painters probably did a solid job prepping the home. The initial prep work plays a massive role in the actual longevity of the paintjob.
Your average Exterior of a 1,500 sq foot home can anywhere from 4-7 days depending on how intricate the paint job will be. A color match will probably take closer to the 4 days however with a new color and double coating everything probably closer to 6. Now if you added a third or 4 color for accenting trim your closer to the 7 days. I have known of paint crews painting smaller 500 sq foot homes in 2-3 days but again it just depends on how fancy you want to get and how much you want to spend. Now on the opposite end there are homes that take closer to a month to complete.
For these projects were talking a 3,500 sq ft Victorian home. You have probably seen them in some older neighborhoods of big cities like Chicago, St Paul, Milwaukee, Denver, New Orleans etc. These homes sometimes have not been painted in a while so require a lot of prep work. You may even have to deal with lead paint because it has been so long so be sure to check! (I ran into this working on homes in Milwaukee) A majority of these homeowners want to preserve the look so you may have up to 6 or 7 colors! Typically, they are relatively detailed and require a lot of high ladder or scaffolding work as well. Although these projects are more tedious all around, they are so fun because you have the opportunity to basically help preserve history! Overall, these kinds of jobs can go anywhere from 2-4 weeks.
Alot of people out there have the notion that painting is really easy, and anyone can do it. However, the more you learn and do the work you realize there is a lot more to know. You notice there are more efficient ways to do the same thing. You really get an idea of what order to do things in. So next time you need a full exterior painting job done go with a professional. Don't just go with any "Joe", check them out online, look at reviews, find pictures of past work. Take notice of how they speak with you over the phone. If it all checks out, then have them get you an estimate. They should be able to give you a basic timeline of when things will be completed as well. In the end the length of time it takes in order to paint a house has many variables. Hopefully this gives you some insight on what to expect.
