Winters in Toronto can be harsh. But Canadian never makes this as an excuse to get away from any work until that work should not be commenced in such harsh weather. A lot of people have this confusion that whether to commence the house painting in Toronto or any other Canadian region during the winter season. So the answer to it comes down to 3 things in particular.
1) Whether it will be an indoor paint or the interior walls or outdoor paint on exterior walls
2) What type of paint are you using
3) How cold it is
Let us understand how exactly the decision of painting in cold would turn out to be
Painting the house in cold weather: should you do it?
There are a lot of aspects that have to be thought about thoroughly before commencing the painting work in out and out winter. Let’s discuss how the paint gets affected by temperature.
1) Difficult preparation and application
Most of the paints are made to remain intact and work effectively at a temperature that should be more than 50*f/10*C. if the temperature drops lower, it can make the paint a bit thicker which would, in turn, create a lot of issues. The paint would now be very difficult to mix as the stirring process gets harder due to its thickness. The thicker paint also doesn’t settle down well on the surface. In the case of the latex paint, the paint will freeze below the freezing point that is 0*c very easily. It will still be usable though but mixing it and using becomes a lot more difficult. These are the reason that most of the house painting contractors in Toronto would recommend more than 10*C of temperature for deciding to paint your house.
2) Increased drying time
House paints are generally made on water-based material known as latex or acrylic paint or else on oil base known as enamel paint. There is a slight difference between both types of paints. The substance used in both types of paints is used to make sure that they have a good binding property. So it’s pretty clear that water as a solvent is used by the latex paint and synthetic or natural oil is used in the oil paint. When the paint comes into direct contact with the air the solvents used in the paint whether water or air starts to evaporate. This is how the paint binds hard on the surface and settles down like a hard layer. When the conditions are normal, you would experience that in almost 3 hours the latex paint would dry down and 4 hours for the oil paint to dry. Now let’s understand that what would happen if the temperature drops low. In such a case it is pretty obvious that the evaporation rate would decrease and therefore would hamper the rate at which the paint dries. It will take a lot more time than before. The colder the atmosphere is the more time it would take for the paint to dry, thus hampering the speed of the work. This is the reason that most of the house painting contractors in Toronto would suggest commencing the work in warmer conditions instead of starting it in out and out winter.
3) Poorer performance
Certainly, the final look after the paint in cold weather won’t be satisfying and you may not get the results you were expecting. There are many other effects that the low temperature has on paints apart from drying slow. They may sort of blush and show uneven patterns once they dry. Latex paint on the other hand might even crack in different places and start to peel. So it will always be susceptible if you start paintwork in colder weather, there is long-term performance is no guarantee. Even if it looks sort of okay, for the time being, it might require multiple touch-ups to remain in shape. So yes it’s always a better idea to wait for the summers and commence your house painting in Toronto in warmer weather.
When is it too cold to paint?
We have already discussed that a temperature of about 10*C is appropriate for applying paint but there are certain formulas for the paint, which make them tolerate the temperature to almost 2*C. there are many products of varied paint category in the market which claims to work perfectly in cold weather. These include a diamond exterior line from deluxe or ultra exterior paint from Behr’s and duration from Sherwin Williams. But you have to understand that even this paint would do wonders if painted at a warmer temperature. Painting in colder weather thus should be your last option.
What about painting indoors in the winter?
It is very much clear that it’s never preferable to paint on your exterior part of the house in the colder weather, but what if the question arises of painting inside the house in cold weather. So the answer to it will very much depend on how warm is your house from the inside. If the temperature inside is warmer you are free to bring the best color and commence your work. All you have to do on your part is to make sure that the temperature inside the house is maintained above the line of 10*C. if you are going to paint in a vacant house, make sure to put on a heater, to make the room temperature normalize before you start your work. There is also a major challenge in form of room ventilation when it's winter. You can’t open the windows for it as it is cold outside and this might create a problem if you are not comfortable with the fumes of the drying paint.
Looking to paint in the winter?
We are locked and loaded if you have decided to paint your house in winter. We at Mas construction have a team of the best house painting contractors in Toronto, we are more than eager to get someone on board to help you throughout your project. To know more about our painting services in Toronto, call us at (647)835 0590 or mail us at Info@mascons.ca