Exterior painting on Amsterdam buildings: what to know

Amsterdam is no ordinary city for exterior painting. Tall, narrow canal houses full of woodwork, walk-up flats with a shared owners' association, Amsterdam School buildings with lots of wooden glazing bars and the garden villages in Noord: every type of building has its own points of attention. Add narrow streets, damp from the water and sometimes rules for listed buildings. In this article you will read what to look out for when having the window frames, windows, doors and woodwork of your Amsterdam home painted on the outside.

1. Every Amsterdam building is different

A canal house often has tall windows, a richly decorated gable and a lot of woodwork at great height. Buildings in the Amsterdam School style, which you see a lot in Zuid and West, have many small panes, glazing bars and ornate brickwork that the paintwork has to meet precisely. In Noord there are garden villages with low rows of houses, where frames, gutters and fascia boards are close to the ground but still catch plenty of weather.

What all these buildings have in common is wood that needs protecting from rain, wind and changing temperatures. So exterior painting is not a cosmetic job but maintenance of the home itself. In the Amsterdam-Noord project, for example, the exterior woodwork was tackled: wood rot repaired, primed and finished with two coats of Sikkens exterior gloss, see exterior woodwork in Amsterdam-Noord. More about the approach in the city can be found on the page about exterior painting in Amsterdam.

2. Access and scaffolding

With a tall building on a narrow street, the first question is often: how do you safely reach the top windows? Depending on the height and the situation, a painter works with ladders, a mobile tower, fixed scaffolding or a cherry picker. If that stands on the pavement or the street, in Amsterdam you usually need to notify the municipality or obtain a permit. Always check this with the municipality beforehand, so the planning does not grind to a halt.

Also think about the neighbours, bikes by the front door and a place for materials. It may seem a minor detail, but in the city centre it often determines how much time a job takes. A good painter discusses this during the advice session and includes it in the quote, so you do not face surprises afterwards.

3. Listed buildings and the VvE

Many buildings in the canal belt are a national or municipal monument. For ordinary maintenance in the same colour, nothing extra is usually needed, but for a different colour or the replacement of historic woodwork a permit may be required. Check this with the municipality beforehand. How to deal with old timber, historic profiles and traditional paint systems is covered in painting a listed building.

If you live in a flat, the owners' association (VvE) usually decides on exterior painting. That goes through a members' meeting and often a long-term maintenance plan. If you want the job done on time, make sure it is on the agenda. What a VvE project involves is explained on the page about painting work for a VvE.

4. Colour and character

In Amsterdam, window frames, windows and front doors help shape the streetscape. Classic colours such as dark green, off-white and deep blue suit many older buildings, while a newer home leaves more room. When choosing, pay attention to:

• the colour of the brickwork and the joints
• the colours of the neighbouring buildings and the street
• rules for listed buildings or protected townscapes
• how a dark colour heats up in the sun

That last point matters more than you might think: dark woodwork on the sunny side gets very warm, which puts extra strain on wood and paint. More help with choosing can be found in choosing a window frame colour.

5. Planning and costs

Exterior painting is best done in a dry spell, when the wood is not damp and the paint can cure properly. Close to the water and in the shade of narrow streets everything dries a little more slowly, so allow for that in the planning. In the best season for exterior painting you can read which months are most suitable.

The costs depend on the height, the condition of the woodwork, the amount of repair work and how the painter reaches the woodwork. A national market indication can be found under what exterior painting costs. Oranje Kwast charges €150 per door with frame and €153 per window frame, excluding VAT, with a minimum of €300 per job. Other exterior work and woodwork is priced to measure after the free advice session, once our painter has seen the building with his own eyes.

In practice this topic belongs with exterior painting and wood rot and window frame repair. There you can read about the approach and the options, or request a free, no-obligation quote straight away.

Further reading: Interior painting in Amstelveen, Interior painting in Purmerend, Interior painting in Wormerveer.

Frequently asked questions