The Best Time of Year to Paint Your Home's Exterior in Tallahassee

People ask us this a lot, usually once the siding has gone chalky and the trim is peeling at the corners. We paint year-round. Some months in this town are a lot easier on an exterior job than others, and if you have a choice, it's worth knowing which ones.

We've painted the outside of Tallahassee houses since 1998. This is what the weather does to an exterior schedule, with the numbers to back it up.

What the weather does to a paint job

Tallahassee isn't a place where painting shuts down for the winter. Nobody here is waiting for the ground to thaw. What we work around is rain, and in summer, humidity and heat.

Paint needs a dry surface going on and dry hours after it goes on. Wet wood won't hold primer. A coat that gets rained on before it sets can streak or lift. High humidity slows the cure, so a first coat that's ready for the second by lunch in October may still be tacky in July. A summer paint job still works. It just takes longer on the calendar.

The numbers: NOAA's 30-year normals for Tallahassee

These are the 1991 to 2020 climate normals from NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information for the Tallahassee Regional Airport station. Normal monthly rainfall, days with at least a tenth of an inch, and the average high, by month.

Month	Normal rain (in)	Days with 0.10" or more	Average high (°F)
January	4.41	5.6	63.9
February	4.28	5.5	67.8
March	5.24	5.6	74.2
April	3.53	4.3	80.2
May	3.36	4.6	87.4
June	7.76	9.9	90.8
July	7.14	11.2	92.1
August	7.60	10.0	91.5
September	4.91	6.2	88.6
October	3.24	3.9	81.7
November	3.10	4.1	72.5
December	4.24	5.8	65.9

Source: NOAA NCEI U.S. Climate Normals 1991 to 2020, station USW00093805.

Read down the rain column and two windows jump out.

October and November

The driest two months of the year here. About 3.1 to 3.2 inches of rain and roughly four wet days a month, with highs in the 70s and low 80s. Surfaces dry overnight. Paint cures the way the can says it should. Jobs finish on the days we planned them. If Tallahassee has a best exterior season, this is it.

April and May

The second window. About three and a half inches of rain, four to five wet days, and highs that haven't reached the 90s yet. Pollen is the catch in April. It sits on everything, and it has to come off before any paint goes on, which is why we wash first (more on that below).

June, July, and August

The wet season. Seven-plus inches a month, ten or eleven wet days, highs of 91 and 92. We still paint outside in summer. We just leave more room in the calendar for the afternoon storm and the slow cure. Summer is also when rot shows itself, because heavy rain finds every soft board on the house.

December through March

Milder than most people expect, with highs from the mid-60s to the mid-70s. Rain runs a little higher than the fall window but nowhere near summer. Exterior work happens on the dry stretches, as long as the overnight temperatures stay above what the paint manufacturer calls for.

Hurricane season sits on top of all of it

Atlantic hurricane season runs June 1 through November 30. It overlaps the wet season and the best fall window both. It means watching the forecast, and sometimes moving a start date. When one does come through, what shows up afterward is loose fascia, trim knocked off a corner, and rot that starts once water gets behind the paint. That's minor wood rot and carpentry repair work, and it comes before any repaint. We wrote up why the rot has to come out before the paint goes on separately.

So when should you book?

If you want the outside of the house done in October or November, call or request a free estimate in late summer. Those weeks fill first, and we're usually booked out, so we tell you when we can start. The spring window works the same way. Call ahead of it.

If your house needs paint now, and it's July, we'll paint it in July. We have painted through Tallahassee summers since 1998, neighborhood by neighborhood. The job may take a few more calendar days than the same house would in October, and we'll tell you that up front.

What happens when it rains during your job

It rains for three days. That's a normal week in this town, and it's a normal week on our schedule. When it happens, the crew comes off the exterior until the wood is dry again. Nobody paints wet siding on our jobs. If the delay pushes your finish date, you hear it from us, not from an empty driveway. Details on how we run an exterior job are on our exterior house painting in Tallahassee page.

Wash first, then paint

Our exterior jobs start with pressure washing. Spring pollen, or the mildew that grows on the shaded side of the house over the summer. Paint over that and it doesn't stick to the house, it sticks to the dirt. After the wash comes dry time, and dry time is another reason the fall and spring windows go faster.

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Quick answers

What is the best month to paint a house in Florida?

For Tallahassee, October or November, with April and May close behind. NOAA's normals put those months at about four wet days each. The rest of the state has its own weather, but the north Florida answer is fall first, spring second.

Can you paint a house exterior in the summer in Tallahassee?

Yes. We paint year-round. Expect more rain days on the schedule and slower drying between coats. The finished job is the same.

Is it too cold to paint outside in January?

Rarely. Average highs are in the low to mid-60s. We paint on dry days when the overnight low stays above what the paint calls for. Wet weeks push things back more than cold ones do.