Painting and damp in Faro: 455 mm of rain, lime white and upkeep every 8 years

At the IPMA station Faro (no. 554, altitude 5.0 m, 1991-2020 normal) rainfall is 455.1 mm a year, on 48.9 days with 1 mm or more and 15.6 days with 10 mm or more. The rain comes late in the year: December has 90.0 mm, November 75.5 mm and October 56.0 mm, together 221.5 mm, close to half the total. July has 0.9 mm and August 3.0 mm. The mean annual temperature is 18.2 °C, with 35.5 days a year at a maximum of 30 °C or more and 44.7 nights with a minimum of 20 °C or more. There is no frost: 0.0 days with a minimum below 0 °C.

The IPMA sheet gives no air humidity, so we do not state a figure. What it shows is a dry, warm climate with a short but heavy rainy season (December alone has 3.2 days with 10 mm or more). For painting this suggests leaving exterior walls for the dry months and avoiding direct sun in July and August, when paint can dry too fast; that is our own reasoning, so check the paint’s data sheet. Being near the Ria Formosa and the sea may bring salts to the walls, but we found no study on Faro: see the guide on salt on walls and treat the salt before painting.

The New Urbanisation and Building Regulation of Faro (approved by the Municipal Assembly on 29 April 2013, text published on the council website) lists minor works in article 5. Painting is not on the list, but sub-paragraphs (g) and (h) exempt swapping coverings for others with an identical exterior finish and swapping window frames in the same colour and design. Paragraph 2 excludes listed buildings, buildings in protection zones, in listed groups, and those that are notable buildings or quality frontages.

The general law is the RJUE (article 6): conservation works are exempt from a licence and from prior notice. According to a guide by the Order of Engineers (Northern Region) on Decree-Law 108/2026 (in force from 1 October 2026, after Decree-Law 155-B/2026), this exemption remains. We did not read the Diário da República text. Note: the law defines alteration works as those that change the nature or colour of exterior covering materials, so changing a facade colour may not count as conservation. Ask the council.

Maintenance is a duty: article 119 requires conservation works at least once in every eight years, and the council may order works for safety, health or appearance after an inspection. In the Historic Urban Spaces, article 68(2) admits, for wall surfaces, only earth yellow, vermilion and old rose, subject to case-by-case prior assessment, and white on window frames. On listed buildings painting without the heritage authority’s permission is forbidden (article 60(1)(a)).

Scaffolding: the Public Space Occupation Regulation (article 11(2)) says that occupying the road or public space with scaffolding for building works needs a municipal licence, and article 79 limits the occupation to the duration of the works. The building regulation requires a hoarding at least 2.20 m high on works next to public space (article 110), fixed scaffolding, no suspended scaffolding, and a protective net above the hoarding (article 111). We did not confirm the fee or the response time: the fees Regulation 835/2024 was not read.