Can you paint the walls inside your garage when it’s raining? Most of the time you can. Painting the interior of your garage is the same as painting the interior of your house. You can do it most times of the year as long as you can control the temperature and moisture. You just want to be sure that your interior garage walls stay dry during the rain. In this article, we provide tips to help you paint successfully inside your garage while it’s raining. Read on to learn more.
What You'll Learn Today
The Upside To Interior Painting In Rainy Weather
It may even be better to paint your garage’s interior walls during inclement weather. Sometimes, painting while it’s raining outside can be a good idea because there’s less dust and debris in the air.
Painting on a rainy day allows you to be productive even when you can’t get things done outdoors. As an added advantage, you can get your work done while it’s raining, you’ll have more time to enjoy the sunshine.
If you’re hiring a professional painter, you may get a rainy day discount because there are fewer paint jobs available on rainy days.
Dampness Is The Downside To Rainy Day Painting
When the weather is wet, paint will naturally dry more slowly. Be sure to add ventilation by opening windows and using fans and/or blow heaters to speed up drying. Deal with sources of dampness before you begin.
Locate sources of dampness
Be sure to check and make sure that the interior of your garage is not damp before you begin painting. If your garage has any leaks and water seeps in during your paint job, the water will naturally wash away the wet paint and cause ugly streaking.
If the walls are damp when you paint them, your finish may be cracked and bubbly and may peel away easily. Be sure to determine where the dampness is coming from so that you can deal with it.
Deal with rising damp
Water arising from the ground (rising damp) comes up through the building’s structure. If you find that you have black mold, powdery white mold and/or stains and damp patches on your wall, you probably have a case of rising damp.
This happens in older structures that have settled into the ground. To stop this, you must install a barrier (damp proof course or DPC) to prevent the moisture from rising from the ground.
A DPC may be made of water resistant, non-absorbent materials, such as:
- Bitumen
- Plastic
- Slate
Control condensation
When there’s a lot of water in the area, it can cause problems with condensation. Warm water coming in contact with a cold surface will also cause condensation.
Insulating your garage will help you keep the temperature even. If the temperature is very different inside your garage than outside, you may have a problem with condensed moisture.
Check the humidity levels inside your garage before you begin your paint job and make sure that you have good ventilation. Open vents and windows and turn on fans to keep the air circulating and eliminate excessive moisture.
Seal against penetrating damp and leakage
When water comes into your garage from outside, this is called penetrating damp. This happens if your garage is poorly built and has gaps and cracks in the structure of the walls, roof and ceiling. If this is the case, you should take care of these problems before you begin painting your garage.
Like penetrating damp, leakage can cause moisture to come into your garage. If you have holes in your roof, broken drainpipes or other damage that causes water to get into your garage, you must take care of it before you do any painting. Generally speaking, painting is the final step to any improvement project.
What Kind Of Paint Is Best For Painting Inside Your Garage On A Rainy Day?
Generally speaking, any good quality interior latex paint will make a good choice for painting interior walls, and you’re painting on a rainy day, you should use water-based paints. They do not emit as many dangerous fumes as oil-based paints.
In some special circumstances, you may need to invest in purpose oriented paints, such as:
- Anti-Condensation: You may need to use anti-condensation paint to help reduce moisture collection on walls. It also helps prevent mold formation. It does this by reducing the effects of condensation when warm air meets a cold surface.
- Anti-Mold/Microbial: There are also antimicrobial/anti-mold paints. These work to kill mold spores and keep them from growing. This kind of paint will not eliminate existing mold, but it can stop new mold from forming. This type of paint will not last forever; however, and you must repaint with it every 5 years or so.
- Anti-Damp: After you have taken care of all the problems causing dampness in your garage, you may want to paint with an anti-damp paint which contains a water reactive agent. This helps to seal off dampness; however, if you have not thoroughly taken care of your dampness problem this can cause more harm than good. The reason is that anti-damp paint can cause dampness to be trapped. This results in mold problems.
- Use a primer: You’ll get better results by using a primer before painting. Apply a single coat and then give it plenty of time to dry before adding your first coat of paint. Typically, this will be about three hours during rainy weather.
Check to make sure that your primer is dry before you begin adding your first coat. If it’s not dry after three hours, wait a couple hours more.
Can You Paint Inside When It’s Cold Outside?
It is not wise to paint when the temperature is below 50°F. In fact, it’s best not to paint when the temperature is lower than 60°F. Be sure to take the temperature of the walls before painting them.
It’s entirely possible for the inside of your room to be over 60°F while the walls are several degrees cooler.
Attention To Detail Ensures Interior Garage Painting Success
There is really not any reason to avoid painting during rainy weather as long as you’re indoors and you can control the temperature and air circulation. Drying time may take a little longer, and results may not be as good if you’re not careful.
Generally speaking, though, if you take care to follow all the steps necessary to produce a good paint job, you should be able to paint successfully indoors during rainy weather. If you are looking for more guidance, here is our article on painting sealed garage floor.
Just don’t do it on a rainy day. It is really annoying and challenging.