Tips for Painting Your House in the Winter and Why it Can Be Better

How to Properly Paint a Home in the Winter

Keep the Internal Climate in Check

Temperature and humidity are two of the most significant factors to consider before painting. If things are too cold, paint can become overly viscous (thick and sticky), and if things get too hot, your paint might go on too thin and dry too quickly. Humidity also affects how slowly or quickly paint dries due to the varying levels of moisture in the air. During the winter, temperatures can dip pretty low, and the air can get very dry. But while the external climate is beyond our immediate control, internal temperatures and humidity levels can be adjusted as needed. In other words, winter weather has little to no effect on your interior painting efforts, so long as you can properly maintain optimal internal conditions. As a rule of thumb, you’ll want to paint in temperatures around 70 degrees Fahrenheit with relative humidity levels between 40% and 50%.

Use the Winter Weather to Your Advantage

Certain aspects of winter weather can actually help your interior painting efforts. More specifically, the drier outside air can expedite your paint’s drying process and expel paint fumes. Of course, you don’t want your paint to dry faster than its recommended dry time, so read your paint’s instructions carefully and check the external relative humidity levels before opening up all your windows and letting the cold, dry air in.

While winter can make interior painting easier, there’s no doubt that the frigid season can get in the way of exterior painting -- freezing temperatures, high winds, and blowing snow do not make for ideal painting or drying conditions. Still, regions that experience relatively moderate winters might not run into these hurdles. Plenty of paints adhere just fine in temperatures between 40 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit, and some offer even more leeway in this regard.

Apply the Right Kind of Paint

Some paints are designed for application in colder conditions. That said, even these specially-formulated products are typically rated for temperatures no lower than 35 degrees Fahrenheit. So, if outside temperatures fall beneath this threshold, you might want to postpone painting until you find a string of warmer days. After all, the temperature must remain at or above this minimum recommendation for proper application and curing to take place. You might start painting when it’s 40 degrees outside, but if temperatures drop down to 30 degrees in a matter of hours, you might end up with poor results. Also, when applying paint in colder weather, make sure you have the proper tools on hand. Residential painting services can tell you that thicker, sturdier brushes are usually required to properly apply the thicker, colder paint.

Painting Your House: Why Winter?

So, we’ve discussed some of the ways to navigate painting your home in the winter. But, why is it better to paint during the colder season as opposed to spring, summer, or fall? In truth, there are pros and cons to painting in any season -- the optimal season and time to paint your home depends on a number of factors, such as your schedule, budget, and location. Winter just happens to offer some unique benefits in these regards: 

For one thing, most people have more time to get things done in the winter as opposed to the summer, which might be filled with travel, outdoor activities, etc. As for financial concerns, local painting services tend to lower their prices during the winter due to decreased demand in their services, meaning you can save money by waiting until winter to paint. And if you live in a warmer area, external painting conditions might not be optimal until late autumn and early winter (the spring and summer may be too hot -- winter might be just right). Even if you live in a colder region, you can get your interior painting out of the way in the winter.

As winter approaches, don’t write off your painting prospects entirely. On the contrary, embrace the many reasons to paint your home during the colder months. At Endure Painting, our teams work year-round to help you transform your home when the time is right for you. For more information regarding our skills and services, call us at (510) 458-2120 or send us an email at hello@endurepainting.com.