How to Paint in Oregon's Rain Season

Somewhere around the middle of October the rain comes back to Portland and Vancouver and stays, with breaks, until April. That does not stop painting. It changes what gets painted and how.

What moves indoors

Interior painting runs all winter, and in this region it is the season for it. Walls, ceilings, trim, doors, accent walls, whole-house repaints before a spring sale, and cabinet refinishing all happen between October and April without any compromise on the result. If anything the schedule is easier: painters who are booked solid in July have room in January.

The one thing damp air changes

Paint dries by letting water or solvent leave the film, and it leaves more slowly when the air is already full of water. Inside a Portland house in January, with the windows shut and the heat on, that is mostly fine. The practical adjustments are small:

• Ventilation. The rooms being painted get air moving through them, with a window cracked or a fan, even when it is cold out. Low-odour products make that easier to live with.
• Longer recoat times. The can says two hours; we give it longer. Rushing the second coat onto a first coat that is still soft is how you get a finish that scuffs easily.
• Bathrooms last. A freshly painted bathroom should not see a hot shower for a day or two, so it goes at the end of the job rather than the start.

What can still happen outside

Not much, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling a schedule rather than a finish. Some products are rated to go on in cooler temperatures, but no product goes onto wet wood, and in winter the wood is wet. What does work outside in the rain season:

• Estimates and planning. The best time to look at an exterior is actually winter, because that is when the water damage shows. Peeling at sills, green on the north wall, soft trim.
• Dry-spell jobs. A front door or a garage door can be painted on a dry day in a sheltered spot. A whole elevation cannot.
• Repairs. Rotted trim and failed caulk can sometimes be dealt with in a dry week, so the house is ready to paint the moment the season opens.

Use the rain to get ahead of summer

Exterior painting in the metro runs roughly May through September, and the July and August slots are taken months in advance. The homeowners who get the dates they want are the ones who had an estimate done in February, picked colours in March, and were on the list before the first dry week. How the exterior season works here.

Cabinets are a rain-season job

Cabinet refinishing happens inside, takes about a week, and does not care about the weather. If the kitchen has been on the list for a while, the wet months are when to do it. How cabinet refinishing works.

Interior painting with Tall Pine Painting covers Portland, Beaverton and the metro as well as Vancouver and Clark County. Call or text (360) 785-6225 to book a winter estimate.

The winter projects that make the most sense

• Whole-house interiors before a spring listing. Agents in Portland and Vancouver want houses ready for the March and April market, and a fresh interior is the cheapest improvement that photographs. January and February are when it gets done.
• Kitchens and cabinets. A week indoors, no weather, and the kitchen is done before the holidays or right after them.
• Trim, doors and ceilings. The detailed, slow work that nobody wants a crew doing in July when the exterior window is open.
• Basements, garages and laundry rooms. The rooms that get painted last, in the months when there is time for them.
• Rentals between tenants. Turnovers do not wait for the weather, and winter is when crews have room for them.

Condensation, and the room that never seems to dry

Older Portland and Vancouver houses with single-pane windows run wet on the inside all winter. The glass sweats, the sills stay damp, and the paint around them is the first to peel in the house. Painting those sills in January means drying them properly first, sometimes with a fan on them for a day, scraping the failed paint back to sound wood, and priming with a product that handles moisture. Bathrooms are the same story. A freshly painted bathroom should not see a hot shower for a day or two, which is why it goes at the end of the job and why we tell you the schedule before we start.

Why winter is the easy time to book

Every painter in the metro is full in July. The same crews have room in January, which means an interior or cabinet job booked in the rain season starts sooner, gets more attention, and is finished before the exterior season pulls everyone outside. It is also the right time to get the exterior estimate done: the water damage is visible, the proposal can be written and the summer slot held, and the house can be repaired and ready for the first dry week in May instead of starting from scratch then.

Painting outside in winter, if you have to

A front door that needs to be done before guests arrive, a garage door, a sheltered porch ceiling: these can happen on a dry day in a protected spot with a product rated for cooler temperatures, and we will tell you honestly whether the day is good enough. A whole elevation cannot. Anyone who offers to paint your siding in December is painting onto wet wood, and the result will be back on the ground by spring.

Rain season questions