Painting house in winter?

[Jean L. Foster]

Hi, we're having a second floor put on our house starting Oct 1
and scheduled to be complete at the end of December. We're worried
about the feasibility of painting the house in cold weather (this
is in Lexington, MA). Three questions:

1) How soon after Oct 1 could we expect to be able to start
painting the exterior? I am under the impression that the
house will be framed within a couple of weeks, although getting
the windows in, and moving the front door will take longer.

2) What is the minimum safe temperature to paint a house?

3) If the house isn't ready for painting before it gets too cold,
what are the best options: (a) wait till Spring (what about
weathering of the wood?); (b) use painted siding; (c) use siding
that has a primer coat, then wait till Spring; (d) cover unpainted
surfaces with plastic, then wait till Spring; (e) ???

Any advice will be appreciated. Please reply by mail as well as
posting to this group. Thanks.

Michael Condict

[Peter T. Szymonik]

Best bet is to print out these questions and head for a paint store.
My father-in-law is a master painter, and I know he won't open a can
if the temperature is under 55-60 degrees.

Peter Szymonik
xo...@msn.com

[Jeff Drummond]

In article <3246A1...@world.std.com>, "Jean L. Foster" <jfo...@world.std.com> writes:
> Hi, we're having a second floor put on our house starting Oct 1
> and scheduled to be complete at the end of December. We're worried
> about the feasibility of painting the house in cold weather (this
> is in Lexington, MA). Three questions:
>
> 1) How soon after Oct 1 could we expect to be able to start
> painting the exterior? I am under the impression that the
> house will be framed within a couple of weeks, although getting
> the windows in, and moving the front door will take longer.
>
> 2) What is the minimum safe temperature to paint a house?
>
> 3) If the house isn't ready for painting before it gets too cold,
> what are the best options: (a) wait till Spring (what about
> weathering of the wood?); (b) use painted siding; (c) use siding
> that has a primer coat, then wait till Spring; (d) cover unpainted
> surfaces with plastic, then wait till Spring; (e) ???

Another option is to see if you can get the exterior siding delivered
early enough such that you can paint it before it's installed. I would
not leave unpainted and unprimed siding over the winter if at all
possible. Even a prime coat would be better than nothing. Some siding
comes pre-primed.

-Jeff j...@cray.com
--
"PHENOMENAL COSMIC POWER; itty-bitty living space." --Robin Williams in
_Aladdin_, on the pros and cons of being a Genie.

[Josh Dubnick]

A couple of years ago when we had the exceptionally warm fall/winter,
Home Depot posted notices not to do exterior painting in spite of the
apparently warm weather. The sign said that you shouldn't use exterior
paint unless the LOW temperature for the day is above 50. Perhaps a
call to a paint company's 800 number would help. Maybe there are
special paints for low temperature, after all, people paint outdoors in
Alaska where it's probably under 50 at night except for the part of
summer when they have no night.

Josh