Painting in Monsoon Season, Phoenix and Tucson

Operating a house painting business in Arizona isn’t like most other areas, we don’t really have to worry about the storms or the weather.  We don’t really even have to pay attention to the forecast, we just know we need to wake up and get ready to paint!  We know that for over 300 days every year we’ll have a bright and sunny day, perfect for painting (as long as it’s not TOO hot).  Last night and today were, however, a little different, we got a little treat, a large dark blue cloud rained on us for most of the night and all morning, it dropped 1/2″ of rain throughout most of the Valley – Arizona Painting Company was prepared.

If you were one of the customers who we were painting today you received a morning phone call from us letting you know the game plan.  It’s just too wet to paint it!  We gave our painters the day off and rescheduled them to come back tomorrow on your job.  Today was one of those “all day rains” we rarely see.

Most homes in Phoenix have stucco exterior exteriors.  Stucco homes dry very quickly once the sun comes out, usually within a few hours after the rain.  How do we know when it’s dry enough to paint?  An acceptable moisture content for stucco and wood is under 15%.  You can measure this with a moisture meter or another easy trick is to look at your streets, are they dried out?  Typically if they are then your home has also dried out enough to begin painting your house again.

Wood siding homes take a little longer than the stucco homes.  After long-lasting rains some wood homes may take up to 2 days to dry completely, it really depends on how soaked the wood got.  We look at each home differently and rest assured we won’t paint when it’s not safe as we’ll end up having to come back and fix it for free.

How To Paint In Monsoon Season?

1.  Start early, pack up early!

Typically, the days we’re painting your home we like to arrive early, sometimes as early as 5 or 6 am if that’s OK with you.  This ensures we can get a full day of work in, pack up and be on our way home before any storms even think of developing!  It’s also better because we do not want to be painting your home in the hottest portions of the day, it’s not good for the paint job nor the painters.

2.  Play Mr. Weather Guy!

We watch the radars constantly to make sure your home is safe from any paint issue.  If we see a storm pop-up that is heading your way we stop painting approximately 1-2 hours prior and start to pack up our equipment.  We all know how hot it is in Arizona and the paint will dry to the touch in about 10 minutes, after 1 hour in the heat there will be no chance of damage if it was to rain.

3.  Save Covered Areas for  Last!

We will paint your protected areas last.  This way if there was an unexpected storm the only areas that would be wet would be protected from the rain and dust.  These areas include your patio’s, eves, and certain doors.

4.  Powerwash After the Dust Storm?

We always pressure wash your home prior to painting, but if a dust storm caked your home in the middle of your paint job we’ll make sure to spray off the dust prior to continuing your paint job.  It’s never good to paint over dust and dirt and we take the necessary steps to avoid this.

5.  Stand Behind Your Work!

For an added layer of comfort, we offer all our homeowners and commercial property managers a 3-year warranty on all of our workmanship.  Any house painter should offer this if they believe in their work.  This is a promise from us to you that if we do something wrong or paint over wet areas that peel, we will stand behind our work and fix it for free.


For 12 years Arizona Painting Company has been painting houses and commercial buildings throughout Phoenix.  Each year we see these storms and each year we make it through unscathed.  We’ve never had any warranty issues due to the monsoon storms and we aren’t about to start now.  Schedule a house painting quote with us today or call us directly at 602-648-3071  in Phoenix or 520-284-1792 in Tucson.

Arizona Painting Company