Exterior painting covers everything on the outside of a building: render, brick, weatherboard, soffits, fascias, window frames, doors and garden woodwork. In Norwich, where a lot of housing stock is older terraces, Victorian villas and pebble-dashed semis, the job is rarely just a coat of paint. A painter worth hiring will assess the surface first: scraping back flaking paint, treating any damp or mould patches (common on north-facing walls and anything close to the coast air), filling cracks in render, sanding timber back to bare wood where needed, and priming bare or porous areas before any topcoat goes on.
When you're comparing quotes, look past the price per square metre. Ask what preparation is included, not just painting. Ask whether they're using masonry paint rated for the surface (render vs brick vs pebble-dash all behave differently) and a proper undercoat or primer system on timber. Check how they handle scaffolding or tower access for upper storeys, what their weather contingency is (masonry paint needs a dry, mild spell to cure properly, which narrows the working window in Norwich's damper months), and whether they guarantee the work against early peeling or blistering.
We've scored all 9 exterior painters covering Norwich on things like preparation standards, material quality, reliability and how they handle disputes or callbacks, so you can compare them on more than a quote. See the full ranking at the best painters in Norwich, and read our methodology for exactly how we build these scores.