Tips on Painting the Home Exterior on a Cold Weather

Snow is now visible around Calgary and the rest of Canada.

Cold months are here, temperatures will eventually drop to its lowest point. So, how’s your home? Are you all set for the winter? All your exterior painting needs are done on time and your home is now well-protected? Don’t worry; it’s not yet too late for a rush work, you can still do some touch-ups before the weather goes bad.

Is it possible to paint during cold weather?

The answer is Yes! With the latest development in technology so as with painting materials and paints; you can still paint during a cold weather. Some new paints can be applied at lower temperatures; oil-based paints are the ideal for this certain season.

Here are some tips on how to make a successful painting job during a cold weather:

1. Use oil-based exterior paint or stain they can work in any temperature of course by our on experience we don’t recommend anybody paint in temperature below -15 Celsius or an acrylic paint that is intended to be used at temperature as low as 2 degrees Celsius. As I have mentioned, there are paint companies that manufacture low-temperature paint. For a cold and wet weather, Sherwin-Williams Resilience exterior acrylic paint is highly recommended (it develops a moisture-resistant film in the half time as regular paint).

2. Before painting be updated with the weather forecast. It is important to know the air temperature and humidity because paint relies on it for drying. It’s good that, we do have cold but dry winter in southern Alberta, so humidity is not really a big problem for emergency painting job. Remember it’s not recommended to paint or stain in over 80% humidity. You can paint in January in a cold but a dry day with the proper product and your paint will last longer that if you paint in rainy day in June.

3. Its perfect to follow the sun as you work; the more sun exposure you have in the certain painting area the better. During mid-afternoon you can stop working or when the temperature drops.

4. Don’t allow the dew to settle on paint before it dries, it will make a patchy or blotchy because moisture will be trapped under the paint film. To avoid this wait until the surface temperature will be 5 degrees higher than the dew point before applying primer or paint.

5. Double the drying time between coats particularly for darker colors because they have slower drying time because of the added pigment.

Painting during cold season is indeed a tough job and requires a lot of experience. But no need to worry if you are in need of emergency painting job during the winter. We are a team of highly qualified exterior house painters Calgary, contact us. We guarantee the best results that you deserve.