When to paint a house exterior in Columbia, SC
When to paint in Columbia, SC
A short season: book early and expect weather delays. The painting window is October, with 1 good month a year. The best month is October, at about 15 painting days. Book a painter by August.
If you want the house done in October, call for quotes in August or earlier; a job pushed past October is likely to wait until next year. For a deck, the months with enough staining days to spare are Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Sep, Oct.
- 1Jan
- 4Feb
- 7Mar
- 11Apr
- 12May
- 6Jun
- 2Jul
- 4Aug
- 11Sep
- 15Oct
- 4Nov
- 1Dec
Month by month
| Month | Painting days | Staining days | With low-temp paint | Avg low / high |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 1 | 1 | 7 | 36° / 61°F |
| February | 4 | 4 | 10 | 40° / 66°F |
| March | 7 | 6 | 17 | 46° / 73°F |
| April | 11 | 9 | 20 | 52° / 80°F |
| May | 12 | 9 | 15 | 61° / 86°F |
| June | 6 | 6 | 6 | 69° / 92°F |
| July | 2 | 1 | 2 | 73° / 95°F |
| August | 4 | 3 | 4 | 72° / 93°F |
| September | 11 | 11 | 11 | 67° / 89°F |
| October | 15 | 15 | 23 | 55° / 81°F |
| November | 4 | 4 | 16 | 45° / 70°F |
| December | 1 | 1 | 8 | 40° / 64°F |
Deck stain does best in October. Low-temperature paint adds about 61 days a year here.
Towns near Columbia compared
3 get fewer, down to 71 a year. A gap like that between towns is usually elevation, a coast or a lake, which is why a painter from a few towns over can be on a different schedule. Forest Acres, Cayce are read from the same station as Columbia, so their numbers match; the real difference is the distance from that station.
| Place | From Columbia | Painting days a year | Window | Station |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forest Acres, SC | 4 mi west | 77 | October | same station |
| Cayce, SC | 10 mi southwest | 77 | October | same station |
| West Columbia, SC | 12 mi west | 71 | October | Columbia Metropolitan Airport |
| Irmo, SC | 17 mi west | 71 | October | Columbia Metropolitan Airport |
| Lexington, SC | 18 mi west | 71 | October | Columbia Metropolitan Airport |
| Sumter, SC | 30 mi east | 77 | May | Shaw Air Force Base |
How Columbia ranks in SC
Of 42 SC places with 10,000 people or more, Columbia (population 144,788, 2nd largest) ranks 26th for painting days, 4 days below the state median of 82. The longest season in the state is Myrtle Beach, 122 days, 118 miles east. The shortest is Tega Cay at 68. Switching to low-temperature paint here is worth 61 extra days, more than most of the summer months on their own.
Where these numbers come from
Daily records from Columbia Owens Downtown Airport (7 miles away), 2015 to 2024, NOAA Global Summary of the Day. A month is good at 12+ painting days and possible at 6+.