Will it rain before the gloss has dried?
The front of the house is prepped: sanded, filled, primed. The forecast says showers from mid-afternoon. The masonry paint needs a dry surface and dry weather for a time after application, and the fascias are still wet from the overnight dew. The painter waits an hour, starts, and stops again at two when it clouds over. Tomorrow looks worse.
Nobody has an interior job lined up for rain days, and the next customer on the list is expecting you next week.
Why exterior work loses so much time
Exterior painting depends on rain, temperature, dew and surface moisture, and the right conditions vary by product. Checking a general forecast on the morning is too late to plan anything else, and each painter makes the call alone.
- Go or no-go is decided on the morning.
- Product conditions, like minimum temperature, are not written into the plan.
- There is no interior work ready for bad days.
- Customers learn about delays when the painter does not arrive.
- Nobody records how many days were lost, so start dates stay optimistic.
What the weather costs you
Idle painter days, partial days where work is started and abandoned, finishes spoiled by rain on wet paint and redone, and customers down the list waiting without knowing why. It all adds up during the short season when exterior work can be done.
Exterior jobs also carry more customer anxiety than interior ones. The customer can see scaffolding or ladders against their house, half-painted window frames and a van that did not turn up. Without a message from you, they fill the silence with their own explanation, and it is rarely a generous one.
The planner we build
- Each exterior job records its location and the products being used, with the conditions you set for each, such as minimum temperature and dry time before rain.
- Each afternoon, the planner checks a site-level forecast from a weather service for the next few days and flags days that are risky for each job.
- Interior jobs, or interior parts of the same job, are held as fallback work, and the planner proposes swaps when exterior days look risky.
- The owner accepts or changes the plan, and painters see tomorrow's job on their phones the evening before.
- Customers affected get a message in your wording with the change and new expected dates.
- Lost days are recorded, so start dates for next season's exterior jobs can allow for them.
| Condition | Set by you per product |
|---|---|
| Rain | Dry time needed after application |
| Temperature | Minimum air and surface temperature |
| Dew and damp | Morning start time or dry surface check |
| Wind | Limits for spraying if you spray |
The conditions are taken from the product data sheets and your experience. The planner flags risk but the painter still decides on site.
A season with fewer wasted mornings
Rain days are known the afternoon before, and painters go to an interior job instead of sitting in the van. Coats are not started when rain is due before they will be dry. Customers hear about changes in good time. And the next season's plan uses real lost-day figures, not optimism.
Signs the weather is costing you
- Exterior go or no-go is decided on the morning.
- Painters have abandoned a coat halfway because of rain.
- There is no interior work lined up for bad days.
- Customers find out about delays on the day.
- You do not know how many days you lost last season.