We've decided that the house needs painting on the outside and on the inside. We can't decide whether to do any of it during the winter or to wait until warmer weather. We'll probably start the inside in February or March, but my wife says the smells will bother her. What conditions and season do you reserve for painting?
I'm no expert, but the last time I did interior painting was last summer. The sales clerk who mixed my paint advised that I'd want to wait until the heat had broken and it was less humid to paint. We'd been having an unusually hot summer and he warmed that painting in those conditions could cause bubbling in the paint and issues with drying times. I also know that painting shouldn't be done when it's too cold out but that's more of a concern for exterior painting. As long as the interior temperature is moderate and it isn't humid you shouldn't have any issues.
Most interior latex paints today dry quickly and have very little odor. If you paint on a day that is not bitterly cold, you can open the windows to air out the room once the paint has dried.
I am a pipeline painter by profession and I've also painted a lot of houses over the years. I would definitely paint at a time when humidity is low. The higher the humidity, the longer your dry time will be. Crack some windows and set up some fans and the fumes should be out of there in no time.
Outdoors not in the winter, you want to wait until late spring. You can paint indoors anytime. I wouldn't paint when it's too hot though - too humid and it takes longer to dry.
Most paints will tell you the best time to use them. I have painted outdoors in the dead of summer before. I just painted early in the morning and then once the sun went down. I think indoors you can paint whenever.
You can't paint whenever indoors. You have to be careful when it's too hot. You don't want tacky paint. It will look bad and it won't dry evenly. Good tip about painting in the early morning or late evening though (outdoors).
I think spring, which it is here where I live, is the best time to paint unless you have a lot of pollen. Then I would wait until most of it has fallen. I love being outside in the spring months. Even painting is a pleasant task then.
