# Drying / recoat time



## kboyz

Yes and no. If you're pressed for time and not using a semi gloss or higher sheen, the color isn't a deep base and it's dry to the touch you should be all right. In that ase 4 hours is a very long dry time. I like to let deep colors cure over night as they take longer to dry due to the amount of colorant. Probably overkill but that's my preferance.


----------



## beerdog

interesting. Why woudl semi-gloss or higher make a difference?


----------



## Brushjockey

Some paints need to dry through, just not on the surface , to perform right. 
If you add a coat before this happens, you seal in the moisture that is trying to escape. 
One trick I use all the time on something that I want to move forward faster than the can says, is put a fan on it after it has settled down. This can cut the dry time significantly.


----------



## Gymschu

Brushjockey said:


> Some paints need to dry through, just not on the surface , to perform right.
> If you add a coat before this happens, you seal in the moisture that is trying to escape.
> One trick I use all the time on something that I want to move forward faster than the can says, is put a fan on it after it has settled down. This can cut the dry time significantly.


That's what I do Brushjockey, especially if pressed for time.......a fan does wonders although the downside is you sometimes blow dust and debris onto the paint film.

If I have plenty of time, I actually like to wait a day for the first coat to dry then hit it the next day with coat #2. That doesn't happen too often.


----------



## P Marage

beerdog said:


> interesting. Why woudl semi-gloss or higher make a difference?


Sometimes if not cured quite enough it tends to soften the previous coat and not usually but sometimes it will soften it enough to pull the previous coat of paint away before its bonded. Flat and eggshell have less latex or more chalky sub-straits(or vice versa, im not sure) leaving it more porous allowing moisture to escape easier, drying faster. 
You might find that when cutting in to early your brush feels tacky and pulls a bit harder across the first cut/roll making it difficult to get a nice strait cut. Acrylic is bad for this. 
I may be wrong but thats my observation.


----------



## ltd

i use to rush dry times and never had a problem.then again i use to do in a lot of things .maybe i was just lucky .like others have said deep colors ,small rooms like bath rooms that will have steaming showers on i go by the book , maybe even more. i use fans dayley to help dry paint i dont put it directly on wall but just to get air moving. if your a weekend warrior just go by the book ,you cant go wrong. with that said if can says recoat in 4 hours and you do it in 3 1/2 hours will life change as we know it :no:


----------



## DangerMouse

The DB acrylic semi-gloss I've been using is super fast drying too. Almost to the point of being TOO fast drying to allow a few minutes to look and find all the runs/drips/etc. (which I rarely see or do anyway, but....) It's weird to have it feel dry to the touch in 5 or 10 minutes, you know?

DM


----------



## mustangmike3789

you should wait on your recoat window depending on ambient temp,surface temp and realitive humidity which could change that minimum recoat time by several hours. water base paints are not as critical as epoxies or polyurethane paints which need time to gas out as they cure. gassing is not really a big issue with water base paints. as someone mentioned, you could start pulling away the first coat before it has time to bite and you could also run into the first coat shrinking at a different rate than the second coat and they will not properly bond to each other.


----------

