jeez24

First post, long-time reader.

Here's the scenario: Have my own business painting exteriors on the West Coast for the last ten years where it really doesn't get much between 50 and 80 degrees during the day but a promotion for my wife might mean a move to the Midwest (Chicago, Indy, Milwaukee) may be coming down the pipe. I'm of course used to working all year, but the opportunity is probably too good to pass up and I was wondering what the work situation is during the winter months in these climates? Can you still do exteriors or is everything effectively shut down like it often is for a few months in rainy climates out here? Would I have to move everyone inside but even then I doubt it's possible to land enough work on interiors to keep full exterior crews busy during the winter?

Any help would be great. Thanks.

seversonspainting

Well, in MN, most painting companies don't do work in the winter has the paint has no cure time and will flake off. I just don't work in the winter.

Everything is set to int. work for the winter months.

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Bender

Good luck with the move

Safety Guy

There are VERY limited oppurtunities to paint outside from say mid-Oct till the end of March. Even with the newer low temp paints the outside work mostly shuts down.

MAK-Deco

I am in Chicago we do mid April to Mid Oct. you could squeeze a little more out of that but the weather is to iffy in my opinion...

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daArch

Most responsible painters move inside in the winter. Around here (eastern MA) I would never start and exterior after Oct 1. But the newer paints allow more range of temp. But still, dewy mornings, short days, and declining temps make it an ify proposition.

HOWEVER, a few years ago,l I did see some "painter" applying some kind of primer in 25 degree temp. But it wasn't his fault, the instructions weren't in Portuguese and the thermometer only read farenheit

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Pete's Painting

I'm already getting dew on my truck, NE Mass, I'm glad to be done with my exteriors. I passed on so many, got rid of the rest. Looking forward to getting back to a normal 40 hr week instead of jumping from int. to ext. I won't be doing any next year. The window was pretty short, and the weather was wet,
Up here in New England and where you might move to, you need to be extremely productive with your exteriors.

Be careful, you may be used to doing so many in a period of time, and then find yourself rushing as the leaves are falling all over your wet paint.

jeez24

Thanks for the tips guys, I know it's not recommended to apply at those low temps however I did speak with some people who supposedly push through it and get days in where they can during the winter while others just close up shop or move indoors. Very, very different than here in SoCal where you can go 300 days a year.

Will keep everyone updated, I do very little interior work now so we'll see.

PinnacleResidential

Jeez, I started painting in Chicago years back. We could paint ext up to about the middle of October. After that, it gets below freezing every night so you'll basically have to shut down. The other problem is going to be snow. When there's snow on the ground, you'll be slipping and sliding all over your ladders and picks. Plan on doing more interior work. You are not going to have any luck with winter app. Plus, homeowners are going to stop calling in the winter for ext projects. It's going to be tough to get a job where the ho says "sure, come paint my house in January."

Not trying to discourage you, but my opinion is that this will not work. You're going to have to reconfigure yourself to do Interior work. Also, I have about 10 different dummy doors. I keep them so I can yank doors off of ho's houses and take them to my shop to refinish and/or paint them. This is a great way to keep busy during rain and cold days.

I've gotta also say this, are you sure you would want to paint ext during the winter months? Cold, shaking hands while you're cutting, gummy paint due to the cold. And, let's not forget how many layers of clothing you'll have to wear to keep warm. You're mobility will be limited. Also, you won't be able to get on a roof - it'll be too icey.

crow

youll be in such shock from below zero temps round these parts, you aint gonna even think bout ext anything till late april/may. its all int. your movin to a very cold and very windy place. (winter). not to mention the fact you need to pack steel just to keep folks straight! the place is a concrete jungle man, youll find midwest folk aint nothin like west coast folks. good luck.

Joewho

You're right, some people push through, but those are usually new construction that won't make it through the closing without some kind of coating. These jobs are what we repaint in the summer.

I was a realtor a long time ago, started painting for money. A bank called me in January when it was just starting to snow and asked if I would paint one piece of gable facia. The house was closing in 2 hours and it had to be done.

I did it, it was snowing when I came down the ladder and there was a couple of inches already there. It paid really well though.

daArch

JEEEZ, I would HOPE you got paid well. That's COMBAT PAY.

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jr.painting

We don't do ext. work in the winter. Move to inside where it is much warmer.

I can't stand the cold, much less work in it and freeze my a$$ off.

Art Works Interiors

One reason to add to the list of why I only do interior work is:

It's all interior work, when it's cold out and...

you get a lot of interior work in summer because everybody's doing outside work.

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painttofish

You can paint all winter no problem. Just use oil with a little Jap dryer and it will dry in the spring.

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Mantis

I remember painting for a slap-em up builder a few years ago and watching snowflakes land on the fresh alkyd we just rolled onto some pvc columns. "The house is closing tomorrow morning and we will NOT be weather letting this. If it falls off, I'll pay you in the spring to fix it". Heh, You're the boss! .

In Michigan, we're done painting exterior stuff when the mercury drops below 45F. On occasion if there is an 'emergency' we'll use a low temp exterior latex to get a builder by, but we dont like it. For longevity sake we stop ext stuff around the time random kids are bugging the hell out of me for candy corn.

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jeez24

Thanks again for the advice guys, my wife hears back finally on the promotion next week and we'll make our decision there. After much thought if we go I'll probably stick to doing mostly exteriors, and selling/scouting summer exterior work in the winters while picking up a seasonal gig and doing interiors here and there. I'll feel that's best with my background.

Do any of you guys do this? Can you book and schedule the summer months over the winter so once the snow melts you can focus 100% on getting the work done right (which will be huge for me in my first year w/out local references) instead of spending time over the summer trying to find and land jobs?

DeanV

You can try, but the hard part is going to seeing everything you need to with 2 feet of snow on the ground, covering trim along roofs (and these are the areas prone to peeling), assessing decks, etc.

Charles

Move inside. Your jobs will become a mess and you'll ruin your reputation.