Heat & Paint

The summer heat can be fickle and troublesome when it comes to exterior projects! The intense summer heat can cause all sorts of problems with your projects. The most likely heat failures you’ll encounter are watery paint and peeling paint. The only real answer to these failures is to avoid the heat, either earlier or later in the day or providing shade for the surface you are working on. But, it may not be clear why  your paint is failing, which we’ll talk about today.

The key process that lets paint ‘stick’ requires evaporation, gluing pigmented paint to the surface. Increasing the temperature will naturally increase the speed at which paint evaporates. At first, these temperature increases will simply speed up the paint’s natural bonding and leave the surface feeling ready to be re-painted, which often leads to cracked or bubbly paint. Paint will continue to dry normally until about 90 degrees. As it rises, the evaporation process will speed up, faster and faster, until parts of the paint are evaporating unevenly! Some paint will not form the bonds with the surface, leaving chalky paint behind that comes away at a touch, or, you might have paint that doesn’t dry at all and instead begins to run in droplets down the surface!

If you experience these sorts of extreme paint symptoms, you might need to provide shade for your work space. Even if you are working in 80-90 degree weather, different project materials will absorb the sun and have a dramatically different surface temperature, especially metal and plastic surfaces! (Its like sitting down in a car that’s been out in the sun!)

Remember, you can always check with your local Mallory Paint Store if you are experience any sort of paint failure, or, just want advice on what steps you can take to make sure the project gets done right the first time!