Painting - Paint after Rain - how long

We are in the process of painting the exterior of our house. Unfortunately, it has been raining on and off for the past few days. I know we don't want to paint over moisture so... how long after rains should you wait to continue painting. Or is there a way to tell if the wood if dry enough to proceed. We have a lot of house to paint and living up north... the winter is fastly approaching.

Thanks in advance!

Chris

There is a moisture meter for this purpose
I don't thinks it's worth the investment for this one project though
It really depends on how soaked it got, and how much or little sun and humidity there is during the drying period, and how good the old paint is
Just a shower maybe a nice dry day
A couple of downpours you might need to wait 3 days
It may even tell you on the can

Latex is more forgiving than oil base when it comes to moisture. IMO common sense is a good judge. If you can see dampness in the wood you know you need to wait awhile. A sunny location will obviously dry before a shady side will :)

we are putting on a latex primer right now. some of the old paint has been sanded down to bare wood so it makes me think to wait a little longer. The moisture meter is a good idea... I wonder if some of the local paint stores have one you can rent, or borrow?

Also - sounds like I may want to follow the sun around the house.

What about latex caulking - I have a few places I need to finish that in - mostly corners. Should the 2 or 3 day wait work for that also?

Surfaces to be caulked also need to be dry. Use an acrylic siliconized caulk for best results. Bare wood with full sun dries fairly quick. Corners, laps and sometime scraped edges are usually the last to dry.