A Paint Job and the weather, the necessary combination

When Mill City Restoration prepares for a paint job, one vital piece of information is the weather. When is it too late for a good paint job? Can you stretch the painting season using oil paints? These are some of the questions about to be answered.

So when is the best time to paint interior or exterior? If you schedule allows it, try for interior in the winter. You certainly aren’t doing exterior painting during this time and painters would prefer the winter for interior painting as well. There are no limitations on sunlight and normally the indoor air is good for paint cure times, so the work can go quickly.

The outdoor season in Minnesota is anytime the temperatures start staying above 35 degrees at night. Some painters may try to push that using oil paints, but Mill City Restoration will not compromise quality just to get a job done. If water can freeze outside, what do you think it will do to your paint?

Outdoor painting is best done when you can make sure the temperature will stay above 40 for at least a week as your home paint cures. A rule of thumb for exterior painting is to paint from April to October. Ideally it would be best to wait to start a paint job until the middle of April, and it is best to finish your paint jobs in the middle of October.

The right type of paint is also critical. This is where you need to talk to a painting professional at one of the many great paint stores locally like Hirshfield’s or Sherwin Williams. The surface you are painting will determine the paint you need and today’s paints are always changing along with the technology they are using to make paint. Concrete paint may need a primer and some metal paints don’t need one at all. Some paint will absorb into the substrate more, like untreated concrete, and other paint will glide along the surface like new metal.

Remember, when you want to paint outside, do it from April to October. When you want to paint inside, you can do it anytime but we recommend the cold months.