Can You Store Paint in the Garage?
Ivan McCloud | Dec 18, 2023
You might be confused about whether can you store paint in the garage, right? Okay, the paint can be stored in the garage. But it depends on your ability to control its environment as paint requires specific weather to be stored.
A garage can be an option to store paint because it generally has enough unused space for such things. But paint can get damaged under bad weather as well. So, some special measures are to be taken in order to store paint in a garage safely.
Can You Store Paint in the Garage?
You can store paint in the garage only if the room is dark, cold, and dry. If it is not, your paint will get spoiled due to lack of proper environment.
Your garage might seem to be the best place for storing the remaining paint. But be aware! It can be a wrong choice. Your paint needs a dry and dark environment to stay well for a long time.
Sometimes some paints react in the presence of light and their color gets changed. A damp environment may damage the paint as well. However, the risk of damage to the paint is the highest when it is exposed to hot temperatures.
The paint stays well in not-so-low temperatures. But in hot places, paint easily gets spoiled. So, keeping in a cold, dry, and dark garage is safe although garages generally do not have such an environment.
Maybe you do not have any place left for storing it either. In such a situation, you will have to manually prepare the room for storing paint. Special maintenance is required in this matter.
Try to close all the windows and doors and keep them shut all the time. It is because you have to resist sunlight from entering the garage. This will prevent the room from getting heated also.
Take steps to keep the room temperature at a moderate state. It should not be any more than 25° Celsius.
How Long Can You Store Paint in a Garage?
You can store paint in a garage for 4-5 years or much more than that only if you can make sure that the room has an appropriate environment.
It is hard to find a suitable place for storing paint. Generally, garages do not have the features needed to keep paints good. But by dint of proper maintenance and hard work, it is possible to store paint in a garage.
In a garage, paint can remain good for up to 4 years at least. Although the durability of a thing mostly depends on the quality of the product and how one takes care of it. If all the conditions are met, store your paint and preserve it there as long as you need.
Firstly, paint which is mostly made of pigment stays good if it does not get in touch with air. So, you have to keep it in a pot or bucket that protects it from the air. It is better to use a glass pot because then the user will be able to monitor the exact color of the paint. Many also suggest that one should label it as well.
Secondly, keep the garage dry and cool. Do not let the room be extremely heated. You can keep the paint on shelves to save it from having an impact on the humidity of the ground. If not, the metal might get rusted and it might spoil the paint.
Temperature control is very important in this regard because if the paint gets too hot, its ingredients start to deteriorate. On the contrary, freezed paint’s liquid and solid materials get separated. When you use this freezed paint in the future, it will no longer stick to the surface. So, climate control is very crucial for storing paint.
Keeping all these in mind, you can store paint in a garage for really a long time!
Is It Safe to Store Paint in the Garage?
Storing paint in the garage in a suitable climate is safe.
When we finish painting our houses or various things, it is a common scenario that some excessive paint remains. A frugal user should look for storing it safely in some place to use it later. But when it comes to choosing where to keep, many run into difficulty. If someone thinks about storing it in a garage, then the question arises whether it will be safe or not!
Actually, common garages hardly have the perfect environment for storing paint. If it seems to be possible to keep a suitable climate in a garage, only then one should think of the garage as an option!
What Temperature Can Paint Be Stored?
Temperature around 15° C to 25° C is worthy for storing paint. Paint should not be stored in cooler or hotter places than this range.
While storing paint in any place, the first and foremost thing to be considered is its temperature. You already know why it is so important. Paint can totally get spoiled if it is kept under an ill-suited temperature.
It is proven that paint stays well in the above-mentioned range of temperature. Thus you can store paint for years safely. Storing the remainder paint for future use is a praiseworthy decision. It will save your money and reduce misuse of it.
Learn How to Store Paint Properly:
Where Is the Best Place to Store Paint?
Where to store paint depends on the weather of the place. The place should be dry, cold, far from sunlight, rain, and children’s touch.
Storing paint becomes successful only under some strict conditions. In an adverse situation, the paint might not stay good or usable. That is why a perfect place is to be chosen for keeping it good.
A storehouse or a leftover room can be a good place to store paint. In fact, you have to make sure the room has the exact temperature and humidity to store paint. The room temperature should be neither at freezing point nor more than 25° C.
You can use a container of lined metal, plastic, or glass. But if it is a metal container, you should not keep it on the ground because it might cause rust to the container, and eventually, the paint might be affected as it will get exposed to the air.
Another thing you must make sure that the container is strictly sealed. As you know that paint gets damaged when it gets in touch with air. You can use equipment like a hammer to close the lid over the can. While doing so, stay alert that the paint does not get distorted anyways.
To firmly seal it, use a block of wood of the same size and shape of the lid. It will prevent from distortion by distributing the pressure of the hammer all over the surface.
Remember to put a level on the container writing the color of the paint. If you have decided where to paint with this in the future, write that too in it. It will be beneficial when you reopen it for use.
If you have opened it after properly sealing it once and want to store the paint again, you can write down the date on the label as well.
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Final Thoughts
Throwing away things that could be used is a waste of money and it is obviously a bad habit. Meanwhile, if you are looking for saving excessive things for the future are highly appreciative.
You might want to store paint for a long or short period of time but you have to have good maintenance of it to keep it good. But in an adverse place like a garage, it requires much effort to store paint safely.