Depending on the type of paint and where you are painting, it might be an object or a surface, paint takes a different time to dry fully without smudging in the future.
Thereby, while painting a door, you might want to know what would be the approximate time for door paint to dry completely.
Therefore, answers to this query and other related queries regarding this topic have been added ahead, go through them to learn about the answers.
How Long Does Door Paint Take To Dry?
Water-based door paint will take about 30 minutes to dry. Latex door paint can take 1 hour to dry. And oil-based door paint may take around 6-8 hours to dry but there is no fixed time as the drying time depends on factors like brand, quality, the color of door paint, and the surrounding environment.
Table of Contents
While painting a door which could be a front door, a garage door, an interior, or an exterior door, you may want to know the individual drying time of paint on each of these doors. Therefore, explanations regarding them have been added below.
Front Door Paint:
Generally, it is supposed to take approximately 4 hours to touch-dry paint on the front door.
Depending on the paint type you’ve used to paint the front door, the approximate drying time of the front door may vary.
But till now from most homeowners’ statements, it has been learned that more or less front door paint takes around 4 hours to dry unless the door is old or the first coating is a pretty thick one.
Garage Door Paint:
Paint on a garage door is supposed to take a minimum of 12 hours to touch-dry fully.
The garage door paint usually is supposed to take a longer period of drying time.
It’s because it’s an outdoor door, thus, several factors such as the surrounding environment, humidity, and weather directly influence the drying time of a garage door paint.
Therefore, it’s suggested to play safe and wait for a day/24 hours for the garage door paint to dry fully so that there’s little to no chance that the paint would stick after the 2nd coating of paint is applied.
Interior Door Paint:
It fully depends on the type of paint you have used to paint the interior door. If you have used water-based paint, just 30 minutes or less than 30 minutes are enough for the first coating to dry.
If you have used latex paint, it may take up to 1 hour to touch dry. But if it’s an oil-based paint, it will take somewhere between 6-8 hours to dry fully. Just know that you need to give 24 hours to oil-based paint on an interior door to dry.
Exterior Door Paint:
An exterior door can be a front door or any other door that’s located outdoor, thus, if it’s a front door, as mentioned above it would take up to 4 hours to dry.
However, if it’s not a front door, that exterior door paint might take somewhere within 24 hours to dry completely before the second coat.
Also, remember that depending on the door paint type, the drying time of an exterior door may vary just like an interior door paint.
How Long Do These Door Paints Take To Dry?
Since the drying time for water-based and latex paint has been discussed above, here drying time of gloss door paint and metal door paint has been discussed in detail along with oil-based paint.
Oil-Based Paint:
Oil-based paint require a minimum of 6-8 hours to dry completely. However, it’s considered safe to let oil-based paint dry for 24 hours to become fully touch-dry.
Anyway, remember that factors like temperature, humidity, application method, thickness of the oil paint coating, and the quality of primer you are using directly affect the drying time of oil-based paint.
Gloss Door Paint:
It depends on the base paint mixture.
Water-based gloss door paint will take less than 1 hour time to dry fully and latex-based gloss door paint will dry within 1-4 hours, but oil-based gloss door paint will be needing 6-8 hours to dry because water-based gloss door paints are thicker than others.
And if you are using high gloss door paint, it will take 4-8 hours to dry depending on its base paint mixture.
Metal Door Paint:
Depending on the paint you have chosen to paint a metal door, the paint may take 1-3 hours to dry completely. But if it’s oil-based paint, you can expect oil-based paint to take up to 8 hours to dry.
However, the exact drying time for any paint on metal may vary, thus, you should read the manufacturer’s guidelines to know the exact time.
How Long To Let The Paint Dry Before Hanging Or Flipping A Door?
To stay on the safe side, you should wait at least 48 hours before you chose to hang a door. Especially, when there’s weather with much humidity as door paint needs more time than usual to dry properly before it can be hung.
Depending on your chosen paint to paint the door, you should wait for 2 to 24 hours before flipping over a door on sawhorses to paint other side of the door. Regardless of the paint type, waiting for 24 hours before flipping the door is safe.
How Long To Wait Between Coats Of Door Paint?
Below answers have been provided regarding how long you should wait between coats of the front, garage, interior, and metal doors paint.
Front Door Paint:
You have to wait for about an hour or less between the coats of the front door if it’s water-based paint and if it’s latex paint, wait for 4 hours between the coats. Oil-based paint will be needing 24 hours at least to be prepared for the next coat on a front door.
And two coatings of any paint of your choice will be enough for painting a front door.
Garage Door Paint:
Before you decide to apply an additional coat of paint on a garage door, you should wait 24 hours so that the first coating of paint gets dries and prepped for the next coating. If you can’t wait that long, wait a minimum of 12 hours for the paint to touch-dry fully.
And usually, the garage door needs one coat of paint but if you are applying a lighter shade of paint over a dark one, it will need multiple coatings.
Interior Door Paint:
As a general rule of thumb, you have to wait at least 2-4 hours before applying the additional coat on an interior door if you are using water-based or latex paint.
You may need to wait for less if it’s water-based paint but have to wait for 24 hours between the coats of interior door paint if it’s oil-based paint. An interior door will be needing two coats of paint.
Metal Door:
You should wait at least 1-3 hours between the coatings of paint on a metal door. If it’s oil-based paint, wait a day before applying additional coats. And two coats of paint are needed for a metal door.
How To Make Door Paint Dry Faster?
Here 5 tips have been listed that can help you make paint on doors dry fast.
Apply Thin Coats:
Regardless of the type of paint you are using, apply thin coats of paint on every type of door because thin coats dry faster than thick coats of paint, plus give a uniform appearance. So apply multiple thin coats rather than one thick coat of paint.
Paint Doors In An Appropriate Weather:
The appropriate weather to paint front/ exterior/ garage doors is when the temperature is between 50-90 Fahrenheit and humidity because this temperature will make sure optimal drying of the door paint.
Keep Proper Air Circulation:
When you are painting an interior door make sure proper air circulation because proper air circulation will make the door paint dry faster and ventilate door paint’s fumes.
Use Hair Dryer:
Using a hair dryer actually can lessen the drying time of door paint if it’s an interior door. Just keep moving your hair dryer slowly from 2 inches away from the door so that too much heat can’t cause blister on the door paint.
Use Infrared Heater:
If your painted interior door has a thick coat of paint, use an infrared heater, just set it on dry and leave while doing other things. You only have to be cautious about one thing the heater doesn’t make the interior of your home too hot.
Final Thoughts
The exact drying time depends on the type of pain you’re using to paint the door. Water-based paint on doors takes 30 minutes or less to get dried and latex-based door paint may need an hour to dry fully. But if it’s oil-based door paint, it usually will take a long time about 6-8 hours to dry.