Painting the interior of your home can be a half-way fun exercise; the spaces are smaller, cozy and well protected from the elements. This is not necessarily true with the exterior, as a matter of fact; painting the outside can be very unfriendly. This being the case, when painters in Front Royal VA tackle a exterior painting job, they want it to last. Professional painters are well aware of the pitfalls of exterior painting, her are but a few of them.
Wet wood:
Surface water is one thing, it can dry quickly, usually less than one sunny day and the surface is good to paint. If the wood is saturated, this is not the case; it may take several days of sun and wind to dry it properly.
Exposure to sunlight:
This is of particular importance to new, unpainted wood. If this unprotected wood is exposed for two to three weeks prior to painting it will not hold paint as well as fresh wood. Make sure it is given a fine sanding and power wash before you paint it, this process will strip away the thin veneer of degraded wood.
Too cold:
There is a minimum temperature, below which painting should not proceed. 40 degrees F for oil based paints and 50 degrees F for latex paints is the lower limit. The forecast should be for temperatures above these minimums for at least 24 hours. If you are going to pre-treat the wood with a water-repellant, the temperature should be above 70 degrees F.
Too hot:
If the temperature is in excess of 90 degrees, wait until another day. Painters in Front Royal VA never applies paint in these elevated temperatures as it will blister and soon peel. A good rule of thumb is to follow the sun; paint the east side in late morning, the west side late afternoon, the south side mid afternoon and the north side at any time.
Too humid:
When latex paints cure the water should evaporate faster than the solvents, once the water has evaporated, the paint will shrink and conform to its final shape. As the solvents then evaporate, the paint forms a hard shell. If the humidity is too high, the solvents may be the first to evaporate which causes the paint to cure while it still has water in it. If this happens, there is no solution except to start over.
Painters in Front Royal VA knows when it’s a good time to paint. Professionals like CertaPro Painters of Front Royal, VA will not rush the job simply for expediency, it has to be right.