Question: When is the best time to paint an exterior home or business in the Mid-West?

Answer: Spring and Fall.

This is due to the fact that summer reaches very high temperatures and winter drops below the freezing mark.  So what’s the big deal?  The winters’ below freezing mark is pretty obvious, but as for the summer, it has its own difficulties.  The heat causes the paint to dry very quickly which creates “lap marks” or “stop-and-start marks.”  Lap marks are where the freshly painted surface has dried before the painter is able to re-dip his/her brush in the bucket and come back to the place he/she left off.  When the painter is unable to return to the freshly painted surface with more paint before the surface has dried, lap marks are created.  Looking down the surface of the board, high spots and low spots are visible as well as dry spots and wet spots.  It’s uneven at best and down-right ugly at worst.  With higher sheen paints like Satin and Gloss, lap marks really begin to show up and will make one unhappy customer.

Painting in the sun can blind the painter from seeing the board properly.  Later in the evening, “skippers” or “holidays” might be visible which could have easily been avoided by not painting in direct sunlight.

Therefore, a better time to paint is in the spring and fall.  Temperatures are milder allowing the painter the time needed to prevent lap marks and the ability to see the surface he/she is painting.