Exterior Painting in Winter

[Invisibabe]

Hi all,

House been on market for a couple of weeks, a few viewers, but no offers. We're a bit disappointed, at it's in good nick, great location, well-marketed and at a sensible price.

The only slightly negative feedback we've received is that the upstairs/bedrooms are quite small. This is fair enough, as the downstairs IS much larger due to extensions by previous owners.

Anyway, we've noticed that since we put the house on the market, some of the exterior paintwork around the windows (original sash & case) at the front of the property has decided to flake and look scabby.

Perhaps potential viewers are waiting to see what's happening with Brexit, and whether that will affect house prices, before investing in property, but I do think that the scabby paintwork at the front of the house could be an off-putting first-impression now.

I've no problem getting up a ladder to do the job myself, but I'm concerned about whether painting outdoors at this time of year is a realistic idea, or whether the low tempteratures and dampness would be likely to be too big a problem.

What are your thoughts?

 

[footprints]

Best avoided in damp weather, may delay drying and flake again soon. If you must paint stick with water based quick drying types, strangely oil solvent paints suffer worse from drying problems in damp weather.

 

[Bosswhite]

Best to leave exterior Decorating until the better weather, however if you are selling the property you want it to look good so as Footprints says use Water based Paints for a touch up in the mean time, or you could lose a potential client

 

[Invisibabe]

Thanks Footprints and Bosswhite.

I've noticed that all the paints seem to instruct not to apply when the temp is less than 10 degrees.

Do you think could I get away with a lower temp - e.g. 5 or 7 - if the sun was shining on it? Or is the 10 degrees something which is strictly mandatory and I should definitely wait a few weeks until it warms up enough outside?

 

[HERTS P&D]

People are not buying now due to the up and coming of Brexit.

Andy

 

[footprints]

Ask your estate agent for an honest ( yes I know it's an estate agent ) opinion on why it is not selling before spending time and money. Personally I doubt Brexit has that much effect, unless their job is threatened directly people still need to move. You are still getting viewings, it's a bit like the Millennium Bug there is always some excuse, inflation, deflation, masturbation.............

 

[misterhelpful]

Wait!

It's not so much a matter of whether paint can be applied at 5-7°C, but whether it can dry before the temperature drops further. That said, paint does also thicken in colder temperatures making application harder.

The fact that almost all paints will need at least 6 hours to dry properly, at the minimum recommended temperature of 10°C (they even need 4 hours at room temperature), you can be pretty sure that it will likely need to dry for around double that time at the temperatures you mention. Even then you may have compromised the integrity of the paint, meaning it will fail very quickly.

Wait!

Even if the air temperature stays around 10°C for the amount of time necessary, you have to bare in mind that the surface temperature has to also be sufficient for the paint to dry, so shaded areas may have colder surface temperature than the air, meaning any paint will still take longer to dry.

Wait some more!

Basically, the minimum recommended temperature is there for very good reason, and you wouldn't want to make the paint job look worse for the sake of waiting a few weeks to do the job properly.

 

[Invisibabe]

Thanks for the advice, much appreciated!

 

[conny]

Just for information. I have never been put off a house by the state of it's décor, in or out. I look at it's potential and know that if I like the look of the structure, i.e. number and size of rooms, layout, potential to improve etc then the state or colour of the walls don't matter unless the paint/paper is peeling because of damp.
Therefore, if any potential viewers come you can explain when they are leaving that you intend to redo the exterior paintwork but can't at the moment because temperatures are too low.