Exterior Painting for Los Angeles Houses and Apartment Buildings
Aggregate Construction Group is a licensed exterior painting contractor working across Los Angeles County, on single family houses, small apartment buildings, and mixed use property. Exterior paint here fails on a schedule set by the climate, not by the calendar on the can. South and west elevations take UV load year round and chalk first. Coastal streets in Santa Monica and the Palisades hold marine layer moisture into late morning, which narrows the window when a coat can go on and cure properly. Valley properties swing thirty degrees between afternoon and night, and that movement is what opens the joints at trim and stucco cracks.
We plan the elevation order around that instead of ignoring it, so the sun is off a wall while it is being coated. It is the same sequencing we use on exterior jobs in Santa Monica and out in Encino, where the two climates ask for opposite schedules.
Surfaces We Prepare and Coat
We coat stucco, wood and fiber cement siding, fascia, eaves and soffits, window and door trim, garage doors, wrought iron railings and gates, stair stringers, decks, retaining walls, and block. Each substrate gets its own preparation. Stucco gets cracks routed out and patched with an elastomeric filler rather than skimmed over, because a hairline crack painted shut reopens in a season. Wood gets scraped to sound material, spot primed, and caulked at joints with a urethane rather than a bargain acrylic. Ferrous metal gets rust converted or wire wheeled back to bright metal and primed with a direct to metal primer. Preparation is where the money goes on a job that lasts, and it is the line item cheaper bids cut first.
Coatings, VOC Rules, and What Actually Holds Up Here
Every coating applied in Los Angeles County falls under South Coast AQMD Rule 1113, the strictest architectural coating VOC regulation in the United States, which sets separate limits by category for flats, non-flats, primers, waterproofing sealers, stains, and industrial maintenance coatings. It shapes product selection before performance does, so a specification that works in another state may not be legal to apply here. On stucco we specify elastomeric where hairline cracking is the problem and a high build acrylic where breathability matters more, since elastomeric over a wall with a moisture source traps the moisture rather than solving it. Lighter and more reflective exterior colors also reduce heat gain on wall assemblies, which pairs with the envelope work in our exterior remodeling projects.
Lead-Safe Work on Buildings Constructed Before 1978
Housing built before 1978 can carry lead based paint, and disturbing it during exterior preparation is regulated work, not a judgement call. Federal renovation, repair and painting rules require certified firms, contained work areas, and specific cleanup and verification on those properties. This comes up constantly in Los Angeles, where a large share of the housing stock predates the ban, and it comes up most on apartment buildings where families live through the work. We plan containment and scheduling into the bid on pre-1978 buildings rather than discovering it during scraping, and we apply the same approach on our apartment beautification projects.
Hiring an Exterior Painting Contractor in Los Angeles
Aggregate Construction Group holds California contractor license number 1034714 and carries general liability and workers compensation coverage. Exterior painting is quoted with the preparation written out surface by surface, the product line and sheen named, and the number of coats stated, because a square foot price with none of that attached is not comparable to anything. For interior scope, see our house painting services. Request a walkthrough and we will confirm scope, timeline, and next steps within one business day.