As I write this post the sun is beaming outside, with its warmth, the promise of spring. March is finally upon us, and that means we’re soon going to start ramping up for the best exterior painting; with a lot of luck, we’ll even be able to start this month! In all likeliness, though, the real exterior painting won’t start until sometime in April; that’s because exterior paint is extremely temperature dependant, and the wrong conditions can mean a bad paint job. In light of that, when is the best time to do exterior painting?
You can’t have your home’s exterior painted in the winter time, and that means for a solid four to six months every year (usually November through March) we can’t paint any exteriors. Exterior paint is also sensitive to sudden changes in temperature, which means that painting in March and April can cause some difficulties, if the overnight lows are substantially lower than the daily highs. This makes spring a somewhat difficult time of season to paint during; you may very well have large fluctuations in temperature that can make exterior painting impossible.
The other reason spring can cause problems for exterior painting is the humidity. Springtime tends to be full of rainfall in Winnipeg, which of course makes painting impossible. Humidity makes it difficult for paint to adhere, and we don’t want any cracks or lifting to occur on your newly painted home. All of this to say, while you can paint your home during the springtime, it might be better to wait for a time of season where we can expect fewer fluctuations in temperature and humidity. Starting in around May, the weather tends to stabilize quite a bit, and this can make it easier to find good days for painting to be done. This great painting weather tends to last until about September.
What about the hot days in July and August? Those days can actually make it impossible to paint; when the weather is too hot, paint begins to bubble on surfaces, creating an unsightly mess. Not every day in July and August will be too hot, though, so it’s viable to have your home painted during this period if you’d like.
Looking at the data, it’s pretty odd; you can paint in March and April sometimes, May and June most of the time, July and August sometimes, September most of the time, sometimes in October and often not at all from November to February. The answer to the quandary of when to paint? Talk with your painting contractors about when they can paint your house, and talk to them early. Try to coordinate for a period that will have optimal temperature and humidity levels; when one day doesn’t work, proper coordination and planning will allow for you to change the day that you’re getting your house painted if the timing doesn't’t work out. The safest periods are probably May, June and September, where September is likely the best season, owing to low precipitation and less extreme temperature lows and highs.
