There is never enough time to check off everything on your to-do list. Tasks get pushed back a day, a week, and before you know it maybe even a month has passed before you’re able to remodel the den, or give the shed in the backyard a new coat. In the past certain tasks have had an issue of being limited by seasonality. Especially if you live in the Midwest, Northeast, or any other part of the country that experiences four full seasons. Spring is for cleaning out the house, summer is for perfecting your curb appeal and fall has you hustling to keep all of the previous work from being covered up by falling foliage. Winter is a completely different ballgame though. Once that cold hits, many are limited to shoveling and plowing. But what about those tasks that slipped by your summer checklist, into fall and were never addressed? If any of those happen to include to adding a new coat of paint to an existing structure in your yard, you may be in luck.
Within the last decade the outdoor painting game has brought itself up to another level. 50 degrees Fahrenheit has been a line not to be crossed by painters as any environment below that temperature would cause nothing but problems for painters. That’s not the case any longer. The range reaches as low as 35 degrees depending on what type of paint selected.
If you must paint in these conditions make sure to take the following safeguards. First, as already mentioned you’ll want to verify that that the temperature range of the product matches the conditions outside. Then you’ll also want to take the temperature of the surface you’ll be painting as it may not match that of the air. This can be accomplished by using an infrared non-contact thermometer. You can find these at your local hardware stores or on amazon. If you can help it, try to paint during the hours of the day with the most sunlight. While this is advised against during the summer, “following the sun” as some refer to it as can increase temperature by a degree or two and help the paint bond more easily to the substrate. Finally, make sure that your brushes are capable of handling the possible difference in consistency of the paint colder temperatures may cause.
If discretion is not taken, it will open up a plethora of issues. Cracking, poor touch up quality and color consistency can all become problematic without the proper care. On top of these, low temperatures can also cause latex paints to freeze, and cause oil based paints to turn more syrupy. Overall drying time will increase as well.