So you’re looking to spruce up your home this season, and wondering how you should do that? Adding a new coat of paint on both the exterior and interior of your home can provide some much-needed fresh air, and give your home new life.
But when is the best time for you to do that, according to the weather?
Common Problems
Naturally, extreme temperatures can impact the quality and durability of both an indoor, but mostly an outdoor painting session.
For instance, in cold temperatures, paint tends to thicken, without really drying. In time, this can cause a runny effect, and can mean your paint sags unaesthetically. When it’s too hot, your paint tends to dry out too quickly, leading to unpleasant bumps or wrinkles in the surface.
Depending on the type of paint you are using, you should probably aim towards painting the exterior of your home in temperatures between 50 and 90 degrees (though some brands can work in temperatures as low as 35 degrees).
Another issue can be humidity, since unusually high humidity prevents the paint from adhering to the wall, and thus ruins the appearance of your home. Ideally, humidity levels should be between 40% and 70%, for paint to stick as it should.
Last but not least, a fairly obvious one, painting on a particularly windy day can also prevent the paint from adhering to the surface, and cause little air bumps.
When should you paint?
If you’re painting the inside of your home, outside weather doesn’t really matter, as long as your home is climate controlled. If it isn’t, however, and the humidity or temperature inside your house is dependant on the ones outside, you’ll want to look for the following:
- A few days with humidity that is not too high, and not too low, so as not to impact the humidity levels inside the home, and so the adherence of paint to your walls;
- A week where temperatures are stable, and not swaying towards either extreme, since too hot or too cold temperatures indoors can have the same detrimental effects as outdoors.
If you’re painting the outside of your home, it pays to be even more careful in scheduling your painting session. Obviously, you are at the mercy of the weather in your area, so make sure you keep an eye on weather forecasts for your chosen paint date.
At Flight Decorating, we recommend observing the following rules when choosing the right moment for you to paint your house:
- It’s not an overly windy day (typically, this should mean that the wind is less than 8mph);
- Humidity is moderate – you don’t want a day that’s too humid, nor too dry, so between 40% and 70% should be ideal;
- Rain, rain, go away – keep in mind that you don’t just need to avoid rain during the painting itself, but also for the next 24-48 hours, as your paint dries;
- Moderate temperatures, between 50 and 90 degrees are ideal.
Whenever in doubt, consult with a local professional painting firm, as they’ll be able to give you the best painting weather for your particular area.
For more information about Painting & Decorating in Colchester please contact 07769 693 034
