Do Cold Temperatures Affect My Ability to Paint My Home?
Posted on February 1, 2022
In a word, yes. However, that doesn’t mean you can only paint in the spring and summer. Although most home painting projects are scheduled for warm weather, painting in cold, winter temperatures, painting can be done when it’s cold outside. Generally speaking, as long as the temperatures remain above 35 degrees, some painting is often possible.
Professional painters are often the busiest in the spring and summer months, but they work in winter too. To accomplish this, some professionals turn to paints designed to dry in colder temperatures. Cold weather paint is usually latex based, meaning it cleans up with water. These paints contain polymers and other additives to allow the paint to spread more evenly in cold temperatures, just as it would in summer.
However, paints using these additives and polymers are generally non-thinNable, because adding anything to the mixture would change the ratio of paint to additives. This can be a problem for paint sprayers, because the vast majority of paint sprayers require that the paint be thinned. Thick paint will clog up the paint sprayer tip, so the manufacturers of these paints usually require about eight ounces of water (or other solvent) be added per gallon of paint.
As a result, many of these cold weather paints are applied with a brush or roller. Cold weather paint is very viscous, so it’s a good idea to apply it in as thin a coat as possible. As in summertime painting, several thin coats are better than one or two thick ones. This not only improves the adhesion of the paint to the surface but also improves the bonding between coats.
Interior painting is actually easier in winter due to the lower humidity. HVAC systems work partially by removing moisture from the indoor air, which often has an ancillary effect on the drying time of the paint. Since HVAC systems tend to operate more frequently in cold weather, the air tends to be very dry. Generally speaking, under normal conditions latex paint will dry in a few hours and fully dry in about a day. In winter, these drying times can be cut by more than 50% due to the dry interior surfaces and even drier ambient air.
