California has a largely Mediterranean climate, but because of its large topography, its climate varies from north to south. Here in southern California especially in the Bay Area, the winters are not snowy but mild and rainy. The question is if you can do house painting in Pleasanton during this season?
The answer is yes, you may do house painting during the winter season in the Bay Area. You can paint inside the house even during those extended chilly, rainy hours as the precipitation probably won’t affect the quality of the paint job. But exterior painting under cooler weather has more considerable limitations.
Doing exterior painting during the mild, chilly weather may present adverse factors. It is important to know and understand how low temperatures will affect house painting in Pleasanton — drying time, performance, and quality of the paint.
Paints of both types — latex (water-based) and alkyd (oil-based) — will be affected by the winter chill. Since they are water-based, latex paints will freeze in low temperatures. Alkyd paints, on the other hand, will become viscous and semi-solid, thus requiring a lot of thinning.
Ideally, it’s not okay to paint during a rainy day, or when the surface is still damp from the rain. Not only will it compromise your painting job but the surface will suffer flaws like blistering or bubbling paint. You should wait until the surface is completely dried and ready to receive paint.
Imagine if it’s not raining but the weather is still chilly and you decide to paint, you have to check the paint to determine if it’s usable or not. If it’s a latex paint, they may freeze and thaw in these conditions if they are not used and treated properly. Most paints are manufactured to withstand freezing and thawing in a limited capacity. To check if you can re-use your old gallon of latex paint, see if it is still usable. If it is thick and lumpy, then it means that the paint has gone through a lot of freeze/thaw cycles. Thus the paint is no longer usable and should be discarded.
When you have to paint the exterior surface, you should know that cool and mild weather may slow down the drying process. This will require you to do a lot of recoating, which will take up to about four to six hours depending on how low the temperatures will drop and the type of paint you use. Usually, oil-based paints will require more time to recoat — in some instances it takes about 48 hours before recoating the surface.
Even if you successfully painted under these conditions, you will likely encounter any of these results from painting in cold weather such as film cracking, blistering or bubbling paint, and problems with color uniformity.
It is best to hold off painting until the season becomes warmer. But if you have no choice but to paint during the winter, here are some tips you may want to be careful to consider:
- Check and confirm if the paint manufacturers recommend a specific type of paint for certain weather conditions and temperatures.
- Using an infrared thermometer, check the air temperature as well as the wall’s temperature. If the wall is not that cold, then it may be ready to be painted.
- Paint from 10 A.M to 2 P.M. These are generally the warmer hours during the winter months.
- Heat the areas to be painted by wrapping them. You may need to set up scaffolding to be able to reach and wrap the higher areas.
It helps to contact professional painters such as Custom Painting, Inc. to help you make sound decisions and steps regarding house painting in Pleasanton during the challenging winter months.
