What NOAA lists for Traverse City
NOAA's engineering weather data for Traverse City lists a 50-year basic wind speed of 90 mph (3-second gust at 33 feet), a 100-year rainfall rate of 2.5 inches per hour and about 66 freeze-thaw cycles in an average year. In an average year at Traverse City, NOAA counts about 103 hours with the wet-bulb temperature above 73°F and about 576 hours above 67°F.
These are the station's figures. Your own lot may be sunnier, shadier or more sheltered. What follows is how to think about each number when you plan exterior paint.
A season with edges
Exterior paint has a working window on both ends. On the cold end, every product label gives a lowest temperature for the air and the surface, and the paint has to stay above it while it cures, not just while it's brushed on. On the humid end, the wet-bulb hours are a sign of muggy air, which slows drying and brings dew at dusk. A good exterior schedule lives between those edges, and a painter who's careful about both will sometimes start later in the morning and stop earlier in the afternoon than you'd expect.
Morning and evening on one wall
Dew settles on siding overnight and burns off at different times on each side of the house. A crew often follows the sun around the building, starting where the wall has already dried and finishing where it will stay dry until the paint sets. Ask the painter how they handle:
- shaded walls that stay damp into the late morning;
- walls in full afternoon sun, where some labels warn against painting because the film dries too fast;
- the last coat of the day, so dew doesn't land on it.
Freeze-thaw and the weak spots
About 66 times in an average year, the station's air crosses freezing. Water that gets into a crack in the paint can freeze and widen it. The cracks start in predictable places: board ends, the tops of window and door trim, sills and the bottom course of siding. A thorough bid spends its preparation there, with scraping, repair, priming and caulk, before any top coat goes on the broad walls.
Gusts, downpours and sealant
NOAA lists the wind speed and the rainfall rate as design values for rare storms. They aren't a picture of a normal summer week. What they do suggest is that rain sometimes arrives sideways, so sealant choices deserve a line in the bid. Most crews run a bead where a trim board butts against siding. Most leave the lower lip of each lapped board alone, because sealing it would trap moisture inside the wall. If a proposal says only "caulk as needed", ask what that covers.
Michigan law on painters
Michigan's Occupational Code list of crafts and trades for a residential maintenance and alteration contractor license (MCL 339.2404) does not include painting and decorating; 2018 Public Act 527, effective March 28, 2019, removed that trade so residential painters no longer need that license. That's the law as the fact card below states it. The written proposal is where the details of your job get settled.
Before you sign
- Is every side of the house, plus trim, doors and porch, in the price?
- How many coats, of what product, over what primer?
- How will you decide a day is too damp, too cold or too hot to paint?
- What happens to the schedule if a run of wet days comes in?
- How will you protect plantings, decks and windows?
Our exterior painting page covers washing, scraping and priming step by step, and the pricing guide explains what moves the cost.