Painting in cold weather

When is it time to stop painting in the Lehigh Valley?

The Fall is on the way and that means leaves changing colors and falling, Halloween, Thanksgiving and yes cold weather.

We are asked each year when is it too cold to paint and that is a great question and it depends on a few different things.

Typically in years past you would need to stop painting around 50 degrees which really limits the season in the Lehigh Valley to paint exteriors but with the new paint formulations Sherwin Williams has many pints that can be used down to 34 degrees. This means we can extend the exterior painting season possibly months ahead. We actually painted well after Christmas a few years ago.

We do have to remember a few things, when we say the temperature needs to be 35 degrees we are referring to the surface temperature of the material you are attempting to paint. So if that is metal such as aluminum siding the surface temperature may be a lot lower thence  the air temps. 

We use the information from the local weather channels and temperature and surface temperature gauges. This is very important to know, you may be able to push it a few degrees but much more than that and you could risk paint failures such as peeling, flaking, discoloration and more. Plus you would void your manufactures warranty from any of the manufacturers and trust me they will go back and look at the dates and local weather reports.

So what happens in the Fall is there is no guarantee an exterior painting project can be done, so we typically tentatively schedule these projects with the risk it may need to be done in the next Spring.

For instance we had approximately 10 projects push into 2019 from last Fall, although they are the first projects to be done it still takes time to go through those jobs, not every person can be the first job.

The Fall can be a great time to paint and do exterior projects, you don’t have the direct sun to contend with much or as much rain as we see in July and August, it’s cooler so we have longer work days as we are not contending with higher temperatures and the paint doesn’t instantly dry which makes it easier for the painters .

Most painting companies will be very experienced dealing with the weather and there is no need to micromanage this or delay the project because of a few degrees here and there and can actually add additional costs because of delays. Trust who you hire and remember in most cases they have been doing this a long time.