Drying Time After Painting a Single Coat on the Wall

Recoating

• If you are planning to paint a second coat, you must wait until the paint is dry, though not set, before doing so. This generally takes between two to four hours. This means that if you are painting a sizable room you may be able to start your second coat immediately after you finish the first so long as you start in the spot where you first began painting if the painting process took you more than two hours in total.

Cured Time

• For paint to cure you will have to wait a bit longer. When paint first dries, the top layer may not rub off, but the paint isn’t actually set and you can still mar the surface if you do not exercise care. Once paint is cured, however, it is more resistant to marring. Interior latex paint, the most common indoor paint option, generally takes about 24 hours to cure.

Before Cleaning

• It will take even longer yet for your new coat of paint to be ready to stand up to cleaning. Because cleaning generally involves applying a chemical to the paint surface and potentially scrubbing at it, you should avoid cleaning for at least two weeks after the application of a coat of paint. Before the passing of two weeks, the paint will likely not be set enough to withstand this stress.

Factors

• There are a number of factors that impact paint drying time that you should take into consideration when determining how much time it will take your paint to dry. Humidity can have a major impact on paint drying time, for instance, with paint taking substantially longer to dry in climates rich in humidity. The temperature can also play a part in determining drying time. If the temperature is either particularly hot or cold, it can take longer for paint to dry. Even color can have an impact on the final drying time with colors featuring darker pigments often taking longer to dry than lighter hues.