Painting Daly City

Repainting Daly City, where the gutter counts as a storm drain

Three in four homes here went up before 1980: the Housing Element counts 12,209 units from 1960 to 1979 and 10,195 from 1940 to 1959 out of 32,978. So most exterior repaints in Daly City start on paint laid down before the federal 1978 cutoff. The city asks for no permit to paint, but it enforces a property maintenance code of its own, and it counts the curb and gutter as part of its storm sewer.

Get free quotes Call or text (415) 449-8213
  • Free to request, no obligation to hire
  • Up to five local pros who take this work can reply
  • Rules on this page checked against 18 public sources, October 2026
A painter in white overalls on a ladder, brushing paint along the top edge of a gray wall
A painter in white overalls on a ladder, brushing paint along the top edge of a gray wall. Photo: Lukeroberts, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons.
Permit to repaint
Not on the city's permit list; stucco replacement is
Homes built before 1980
About three in four; 12,209 units date from 1960 to 1979
Property maintenance code
International Property Maintenance Code, 2024 Edition
Graffiti on your wall
Yours to remove; report it before the primer goes on

Permits and local rules

Four Daly City papers worth reading before the ladders go up

  1. Title 14, and why the gutter is not a sink

    The city's storm water title prohibits nonstorm water discharges to the city storm sewer system, which it defines to include municipal streets, catch basins, curbs, gutters and man-made channels. Any discharge that would contribute to a violation of NPDES Permit No. CA0029921, issued by the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board, is separately prohibited, and anyone whose activity may send pollutants into the system must take all practicable measures to reduce them. A release has to be contained and reported to the Water and Wastewater Resources Department as soon as it is known, confirmed in writing within five days. A violation of the title is a misdemeanor, chargeable as an infraction instead.

    Daly City Municipal Code, Title 14 (opens in a new tab)

  2. Flaking exteriors, visual blight and a tagged fence

    Chapter 8.16 makes a public nuisance of building exteriors, walls and fences kept in such condition of deterioration or disrepair that they depreciate the values of surrounding property or are materially detrimental to nearby properties. Its definition of visual blight turns on appearance as viewed at ground level from a public street or from neighboring premises, which is the exact view a failed paint job offers. The same section names graffiti left on the exterior walls of commercial property, or on walls, doors and common areas of multi-unit residential buildings, fences and other structures, and it adds any nonstorm discharge to the storm sewer made in violation of Title 14.

    Daly City Municipal Code 8.16.030 (opens in a new tab)

  3. A maintenance code adopted because of the weather

    Ordinance No. 1484, adopted November 24, 2025, brought the International Property Maintenance Code, 2024 Edition into Chapter 15.14 as a local property-maintenance ordinance for existing structures and premises, with Title 24 and state housing law governing wherever the two conflict. The matrix of local amendments filed with that ordinance gives the climatic finding behind the adoption: a coastal marine climate of persistent fog, high humidity and frequent seasonal rainfall, where periodic high winds and salt-laden air off the Pacific increase wear on exterior finishes. Under the city's amendment, failing to comply with a notice of violation is itself a violation, and each day of noncompliance counts separately.

    Daly City Municipal Code, Chapter 15.14 (opens in a new tab)

  4. The city's own help with an exterior repaint

    Daly City runs minor home repair and residential rehabilitation programs for low-income owners, and exterior house painting sits on the eligible-repair list beside roof replacement, defective heating and attic insulation. The conditions are tight. An applicant owns the house and lives in it full time, owns no other local residential property, and has household income no higher than 80 percent of area median. The house must be a single-family home inside the city and free of unpermitted construction, and anyone who used the programs in the prior five years is out. The division reported the waitlist open as of July 2026, with staff taking questions by email.

    City of Daly City Housing & Community Development (opens in a new tab)

State license for this work: C-33 Painting and Decorating. Look up a contractor's license on the CSLB website (cslb.ca.gov).

Free, no obligation. Next, add your details in the request form.

Free request

Describe the painting job once. Local pros who take work in Daly City reply by call or text.

  • No fee to request, and no obligation to hire
  • You agree scope and price with the pro you choose
  • Photos help them quote without a first visit

Get quotes for painting work in Daly City

Two short steps. A local pro who takes this work calls or texts you back.

To send a request, call or text (415) 449-8213.

Free to request, and you agree the scope and price with the person you hire before work starts. In California, a job over $1,000 in labor and materials, or one that needs a building permit, must be done by a contractor licensed by the CSLB in the right class. Ask for the license number and check it at cslb.ca.gov.

The houses here

Living space over the garage, stucco walls, wood at the edges

The Land Use Element calls Westlake one of the oldest subdivisions in the western part of the city, dating to the early 1950s, its houses generally split-level and detached on lots of 3,000 square feet or more, with the variety sitting in the facade treatment rather than the plan. St. Francis Heights, platted in the late 1950s and early 60s, repeats a different shape: two stories with the living area above a two-car garage, where the differences between neighbors are again in the facade details. North of John Daly Boulevard in Vista Grande the stock is older and lower, mostly one story above a small one-car garage, with California bungalows that have no garage at all. For whoever is holding the brush that adds up to a tall street elevation of stucco trimmed in wood, fascia and window casings and a garage door, with very little ground on either side to lay plastic on.

Part by part

Where the same scope of work changes shape

  • Westlake

    Split-level detached houses from the early 1950s on lots of 3,000 square feet and up, one of the oldest subdivisions on this side of the city, where the Land Use Element notes the design varies mostly in the facade treatment. Every original coat on those facades went on decades before the 1978 lead line, and the side walls stand close enough together that there is no comfortable place to work from.

  • Vista Grande north of John Daly Boulevard

    Dense building along narrow streets, steep hillside construction and dead-end blocks, some of the oldest housing in the city, usually one story above a one-car garage with California bungalows mixed in. Access is the variable here rather than the surface: short frontages and blind ends leave little room to stage, and a bungalow with no garage has no indoor space to mix and store paint.

  • Hillside

    The widest range of densities in the city, including several streets in its southeast corner built out in block-long rows of four-unit buildings. Those are the multi-unit residential buildings the nuisance section singles out for graffiti on walls, doors and common areas, and a row like that repaints as one long elevation rather than as four separate houses.

  • St. Francis Heights

    Subdivided in the late 1950s and early 60s into two-story houses with living space over a two-car garage. The wall facing the street is tall and mostly blank, so the garage door, the fascia and the band between floors carry the whole scheme, and ladder or scaffold time replaces what would be brushwork from the ground on a single-story tract.

The work

Four Daly City paint calls and what each one drags in

  1. Painting out a tag on a stucco wall

    Graffiti on your property is yours to remove, and the police department's guidance puts a step before the paint: report it, and let city crews photograph it first. Removal solvent works on stucco, natural brick and cement, soaked on and then agitated with a vinyl or wire brush. On a wall that already carries paint the same solvent can lift the finish along with the tag, which is why the city's answer there is a primer coat over the marking followed by a coat of exterior paint. The city also reserves the right to abate graffiti without notice, and an owner who does not keep a property clear is referred to code enforcement.

  2. Where the quote stops being a paint job

    The city's list of work that needs a building permit runs through siding and stucco replacement, window and exterior-door replacement, re-roofing and electrical service replacement. Painting is not on it. So a scraper that goes through soft stucco, or a sash past saving with new glazing, splits one quote into two pieces of work, and the second piece brings a permit, inspections and the construction-hours rules with it. The Building Division's own caution is that permit-exempt work still has to comply with applicable building, planning, zoning, fire and public works requirements, and it asks owners and contractors to check with Building and Planning when a job sits near one of those lines.

  3. Washing the walls down first

    A wash is where this work meets Title 14 of the municipal code. The definition of the city storm sewer system takes in municipal streets, catch basins, curbs, gutters and ditches, and putting anything into it that is not storm water is prohibited. The exceptions list reaches lawn watering and individual residential car washing; paint is nowhere on it. Storm drains in the street, the Water and Wastewater Resources Department says plainly, flow to the Pacific Ocean and the Bay without treatment. Agree before the pressure washer appears where that water is caught, and where brushes and rollers are rinsed at the end of the day.

  4. The numerals beside the front door

    The street number sits on the wall being painted, and the Building Division treats it as a requirement rather than a detail. Its inspection guideline, which covers existing buildings as well as new ones, wants address identification legible, plainly visible from the street fronting the property, permanently attached, in numerals rather than spelled out, and contrasting with its background. A fresh dark body color behind a dark bronze numeral fails that last test. Decide early whether the numbers come off and go back, get repainted, or get replaced, so the address still reads from the sidewalk when the wall has changed color.

Before you hire

Five things to pin down before the first coat

  • Ask where wash water and the roller rinse end up: here the curb and gutter are part of the city storm sewer system, and only rain belongs in it.
  • If a tag is being covered, ask whether it has been reported and photographed yet; the city may abate graffiti without notice to the owner.
  • If the scope grows into stucco, siding or window replacement, ask who applies for that permit and who posts the construction-hours sign.
  • On a house from the Westlake or Vista Grande decades, ask which renovator on the crew is certified by EPA, and who keeps the records.
  • Past $1,000 in labor and materials, look up the C-33 Painting and Decorating number at cslb.ca.gov before any deposit.

Timing

The hours a job here may be noisy

A repaint needs no permit, so the city's construction hours do not reach it, though Chapter 9.22 still bars night noise heard beyond the property line. The repair half of a job is different. The Planning Division's handout on Section 15.09.010 holds outdoor work on private property for permit projects to weekdays from 8 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., 8:30 p.m. while daylight saving time is in force, and weekends from 9 a.m. Federal holidays are out unless the Building Official grants an exemption. Deliveries keep the same window, staging may start an hour early as long as nothing is running, and the hours sign goes five feet up, visible to the street at every entrance.

Free, no obligation. Next, add your details in the request form.

Questions

Daly City paint questions, answered from the code

Do we need a permit to repaint a house in Daly City?

Painting is not among the projects the city lists as requiring a building permit; siding and stucco replacement, window and exterior-door replacement and re-roofing are. The Building Division adds two cautions worth keeping. Some minor work is exempt, but permit-exempt work must still comply with applicable building, planning, zoning, fire and public works requirements. And it asks owners and contractors to check with Building and Planning first whenever it is not clear which side of that line a job falls on.

Can the painters rinse rollers and buckets at the curb?

No. Title 14 prohibits nonstorm water discharges to the city storm sewer system, and curbs, gutters and catch basins are part of that system by its own definition. The exceptions cover lawn watering and individual residential car washing, not paint. The storm drains here run to the Pacific Ocean and the Bay with no treatment, a release has to be contained and reported to Water and Wastewater Resources at once, and a violation of the title is a misdemeanor that may be charged as an infraction.

Someone tagged our stucco wall. Clean it or paint over it?

On bare stucco, brick or cement the city suggests removal solvent, applied, left to soak and agitated with a vinyl or wire brush. On a wall that is already painted, the same solvent can take the original finish off with the tag, so the police department's advice is a primer coat and then exterior paint. Report it before either, so city crews can photograph it, and do not leave it up: graffiti on a fence, a wall or a multi-unit building is listed as a public nuisance.

Is peeling paint on the outside a code problem here?

It can be. Chapter 8.16 makes a nuisance of building exteriors, walls and fences kept so defective, unsightly or deteriorated that they depreciate surrounding property values, and it defines visual blight by what is visible at ground level from the street or from a neighbor's side. Since Ordinance No. 1484 the city also enforces the International Property Maintenance Code, 2024 Edition on existing structures and premises, and once a notice of violation is final each day without compliance counts separately.

Will the city help a low-income owner pay for exterior painting?

It may. Exterior house painting is on the eligible-repair list for the minor home repair and residential rehabilitation programs run by Housing and Community Development, which offer grants and low-interest loans. The owner must live in the house full time and own no other local residential property, household income cannot exceed 80 percent of area median, and the house has to be a single-family home in the city and free of unpermitted construction. Use of the programs in the prior five years rules an applicant out.

Our house dates from 1956. Does that change the prep?

Yes. Paid work disturbing paint in a home built before 1978 falls under the EPA's renovation rule, which wants the firm certified by EPA and its renovators trained in lead-safe work practices. EPA reckons about three-quarters of U.S. homes from before 1978 still hold some lead-based paint. The Housing Element's table puts most of this city on that side of the line, and its environmental section lists lead in older homes among the indicators pushing the local CalEnviroScreen score up.

Where these facts come from

Checked against these public sources in October 2026. Rules and programs change: confirm permit requirements with the city before work starts, and a contractor's license on the CSLB website.

Painting work in Daly City? Tell us what you see.

One request reaches local handymen and contractors who take this work. The Handyman SF connects you with them; it does not do the work.

Get free quotes Call or text (415) 449-8213
HandymanNow for handymen Work in Daly City? Get job leads by text. Pick your trades and areas, take only the jobs you want. No subscription. Start getting leads HandymanNow for homeowners Get the HandymanNow app. Send a request with photos, message your handyman and follow them on the way. Download the app

HandymanNow app

Fix it faster. Find work faster.

Homeowners send a job with photos and follow their handyman on the map. Handymen get local jobs by text and take only the ones they want.

Get the appHomeowners · free Get job leadsHandymen · no subscription
Get it onGoogle PlaySoon onApp Store
Call WhatsApp (opens WhatsApp) Free quote