Keywords: Rainy days, humidity, sagging paint
Several years ago, I bought a distressed home that had been foreclosed on. The house was a dark hole of despair. I remember that it was the first Saturday of February. I had invited family and friends to help me clear the house of the previous owner’s clutter, clean the house, and get a fresh coat of paint on the bedroom walls. So, armed with coffee and donuts, which would magically transform to pizza and beer by noon, we enthusiastically got to work. Oh, I forgot to mention that it had rained all night.
We quickly hauled the debris out to the roll-off dumpster in the driveway. The cleaners got busy in the kitchen and bathrooms, and the painters started painting. To my horror, the paint wouldn’t dry. It was too humid. I’m sure you are familiar with the expression, “As interesting as watching paint dry.” I needed an expression for watching paint not dry!
It’s unavoidable. For both the pros and the do-it-yourselfers, sometimes it will rain on the day you scheduled your painting project. Reschedule if that’s an option. Cool temperatures and high humidity are a nightmare for paint because it just won’t dry. High humidity will also cause the paint to sag. This happens when wet paint is pulled by gravity down the wall. Sagging paint is typically caused by applying a coat that is too heavy. But on rainy and humid days, sagging happens because the paint does not dry fast enough. There is too much time for gravity to pull on it.
There are steps you can take to improve the odds of success if you must paint on a rainy day. We have a shelf full of commercial fans, heaters, and work lights for cloudy and rainy days. A typical homeowner may not have all of that equipment, but most of it can be purchased at your local home improvement store. Ventilation is very important. Moving air will accelerate drying time. Run as many fans as possible. If it’s cold and humid, run your furnace with the fan in the “ON” position rather than “AUTO”. If it’s warm and humid, run your air conditioner with the fan in the “ON” position. Do what you can to lower the humidity in the house. Finally, do not attempt to apply a second coat until the first coat is completely dry. On a humid day, that could take overnight.
To finish my story of that wet February day, I decided to save the painting for the following Saturday. We had plenty of other projects to attend to. It’s the same at MTS Painting. Painters don’t like rainy days very much because they may not be able to work. We don’t get much rain in Phoenix. But when rain is in the forecast, we will shuffle the schedule to move tasks around that can be performed on rainy days so the crew can get their hours in. We really appreciate customers who understand what we’re trying to do and cooperate with a sudden schedule change. If that has ever happened to you, I thank you.
