The Bridge Between Winter and Summer: Facing an Exterior Painting Job in the Midst of Changing Seasons

The cold, the unpredictable weather, and the uncertainty that comes with painting during Autumn can be intimidating. It was clear that if we wanted to get this job done before the snow came, we had to really put the time and the work in.

This is the beautiful house we had the pleasure of working on starting early in September...

It's no secret that Grande Prairie has a very confusing Autumn. Sometimes we get snow before October (gross), but other times, like last year, we barely got any at all! With that being said, there are definitely risks with taking on a job of this scale so late in the year. So after assessing the weather, schedule, and our man power, we decided to take the leap and serve the client the best we could.

Preparation...

There is a misconception that painters are... well, just that: painters. When spraying is involved, preparing each surfaces is much more time consuming and ends up being majority of what a painter will do. Painting a wall with our sprayer takes no time at all, but laying down drop sheets precisely, taping off the roof, covering off windows with tape and plastic, now that takes up majority of the time when spraying.

Sometimes extra preparations are necessary like covering the neighbor's walls or vehicles. However, this house was on the edge of the neighborhood and the wind blew into the trees, keeping the neighbors property safe.

As this house it mostly stucco, spraying is mandatory so that paint can cover all the surfaces. Since we didn't want to be there until the spring trying to make it good enough, we knew using our spraying equipment was the way to go.

Timing is Everything...

While it's always smart to think ahead, for a job like this it was critical that we knew what the weather was like weeks in advance. The times we could spray depended on many factors such as temperature, wind, rain, snow, moisture, etc. This meant we couldn't spray first thing in the day because of the morning dew, but we also couldn't spray too late in the day as that's when the wind really picked up! When it rained, we couldn't paint either, and we had our fair share. Now did we just stay home on the days when it rained? absolutely not!

When the weather was less than ideal, we made use of the time to cover more things off, which as I said earlier, is majority of the work. We did this so that the first opportunity we had to get back to spraying, there were no preceding steps still in our way.

Snow...?

I couldn't believe it! It snowed!

We had one day left to finish the job, but there was snow everywhere! However, we knew that the snow would leave quick, and the following day we finished the job with ease.

And so, the rewarding feeling of finishing a job and serving the client well came quickly. Who knows, maybe when spring rolls around we can paint your home too!