Why Spring & Summer Are Perfect Exterior Painting Seasons

While painting the interior of a home or business can be done during any season due to the environment being temperature controlled, the exterior of a home is another case entirely. Finding the right time to refresh the paint on your home’s exterior involves weighing weather conditions, humidity levels, temperature fluctuations, and daylight time. 

Painting experts will tell you that spring is the top choice for painting the exterior of a home followed by the summer months. Let’s take a closer look at why that is so you can schedule your home’s paint project ASAP. 

Mild Temperatures 

Spring is the “Goldilocks” season in regards to temperatures. It’s not too cold and it’s not too hot. It’s just right. 

According to product testers at Consumer Reports, “It should be at least 50° F when you’re applying the paint and shouldn’t drop below 32° F at night for several days after.” The reason for this is that water-based exterior paint requires certain conditions to cure or fully harden in a proper manner. If it doesn’t, you might be repainting your home’s exterior sooner than you planned.

Even if it is warm during the day, if it drops too low at night, your exterior paint product may not have enough time to cure and this becomes a problem later down the road. 

Summer also has some appropriate temperatures as it is definitely warming up during the daylight hours. Unfortunately, by 2 or 3 o’clock in the afternoon the heat of the sun may become a problem for workers and adhesion. Most painting companies will shift to much earlier hours to get the majority of painting done before the scorching temperatures set in. 

Humidity Levels 

Paint technology has improved over the years, thus widening the window of when it is appropriate to apply paint including temperature and humidity variations. However, most painting experts will tell you that the humidity level that is optimal for the best drying time to occur is between 40 and 70 percent humidity.

Once humidity levels reach 70-percent, paint begins to dry too slow. Above an 85-percent humidity level, the paint turns gummy and will not solidify.

Therefore, most painters will keep a watchful eye on not only the local temperatures but humidity levels as well to ensure that your paint project dries appropriately once applied. 

Weather Conditions 

In addition to keeping a watchful eye on humidity and temperature levels, your painters will be vigilant for weather that could adversely impact your paint project like storms with precipitation that could ruin a beautiful paint transformation. 

Daylight Hours 

Once the spring hits, the daylight hours get longer and longer allowing for optimal painting times. It is a painter’s dream to not only have perfect weather conditions but also the long days that come with spring and summer. 

Are you ready to get started on your exterior paint project? Take a look at our portfolio to get inspired. 

Categorised in: Exterior painting