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Drying, recoat and cure planner
Choose your primer and topcoat type, the number of coats and how warm the room is. Get a dated timetable from first coat to full cure.
Your schedule
Results appear here as you type.
How this is calculated
The planner starts from typical data-sheet times at 20 °C and normal humidity, then scales them for temperature using a common rule of thumb: drying time roughly doubles for every 10 °C drop and halves for every 10 °C rise. High humidity adds 40% for waterborne paint and 15% for oil-based; a dry, heated room takes 10% off.
| Product | Touch dry | Recoat | Rehang | Light use | Cure |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Waterborne primer | 1 h | 3 h | |||
| Shellac primer | 15 min | 45 min | |||
| Solvent bonding primer | 1 h | 4 h | |||
| Waterborne topcoat | 1 h | 4 h | 24 h | 3 days | 14 days |
| Oil-based topcoat | 6 h | 16 h | 48 h | 5 days | 28 days |
The schedule adds 30 minutes after the primer for denibbing (light sanding and dust removal). The temperature multiplier is 2^((20 − T) ÷ 10). At 10 °C it is 2.0, at 15 °C about 1.41, at 25 °C about 0.71.
Worked example
Waterborne primer and two waterborne topcoats at 20 °C, starting 9:00 on Saturday: primer 9:00, denib 12:00, topcoat 1 at 12:30, topcoat 2 at 16:30, rehang from 16:30 on Sunday, light use from about 16:30 on Tuesday, full cure around two weeks later.
Limits
- Your tin's data sheet always wins. Some cupboard paints recoat in 2 hours; some need 6.
- Thick coats take much longer than the label says. These times assume thin, even coats.
- Below about 10 °C many waterborne paints should not be applied at all. The planner warns you, but it cannot make the paint form a film.
See also: drying vs curing and the example five-day plan.