Best Time of Year to Repaint Your Home’s Exterior
I know Durango always comes with late snow surprises, but typically March is when we start to see less frequent snow, lots of mud and warmer temperatures. So when the snow melts away and your home’s exterior looks a little discolored, you may get an itch to repaint. I would never try to discourage a person from repainting, but let me offer you some professional tips to prevent you from having to repaint.
In an ideal world, one would only paint outdoors in only early summer or Fall, but Durango sees some pretty moderate temperatures in the Summer and rain is not usually too crazy. With that being said, Spring, Summer, and Fall are fine for painting outdoors. Our painters typically work with Sherwin William’s paint and all their exterior paints are low-temperature rated down to a surface temperature of 35 degrees. As long as you’ve checked the forecast and it’s supposed to be warmer than 35 degrees for a 48 hour period, you should have the green light.
Another variable to watch out for is Spring rain. Be sure to look at your forecast and leave a window of at least two hours of dry time before the rain comes. Most latex paints take a few hours to dry. If you’re looking for something to help you hedge your bets, Resilience paint has an early moisture cure process allowing it to dry faster than most latex paints (so it’s less likely to wash off with rain).
With summertime comes a better likelihood that the temperature will stay above 35 all day. Although, Durango makes no promises! My only real advice here is to do your best to avoid working in direct sunlight. This will undoubtedly make the paint thicker and harder to work with. It will of course dry faster and leave clumps of paint on the paint brush, too. This will cause your paint to not spread as far and leave unsightly brush marks.
The best temperature range for painting outdoors with latex paint is from 50° to 85° F. Avoid extreme temperatures, weather and excessive sunlight and you’ll be in the clear. And as an added tip, be sure to follow proper procedure by scraping, sanding and priming your home’s siding before you paint. If you need help repainting your home’s exterior, call us anytime at (970) 903-4305. We promise to do a fantastic job and take any guesswork out of your next paint project!