More and more people are looking for consumer products that encourage a healthy lifestyle especially if it also encourages an eco-friendly environment. Maintaining a “green” way of life sometimes means settling on products, especially when it comes to renovating your home and giving it a face lift. The good news is that environmentally friendly paints are becoming more and more popular, with a wide range of colors and finishes. You can create the masterpiece you visualized and stay “green” at the same time. McKay’s Painting explores this further below.
What Makes a Paint Eco-Friendly?
Paint is available in literally thousands of color combinations but not all paint is considered “green” and good for the environment. As a general rule, it is fairly easy to tell the difference between eco-friendly paint and a more conventional paint product by opening the can. Conventional paint products have a strong fresh paint odor because they consist of greenhouse gases and other chemicals that are released into the atmosphere when the paint is applied to the wall. Eco-friendly paints however have little odor and do not emit environmentally unsafe gases into the air. When you open a can of conventional paint what you will see is blend of creamy plasticizers, hardeners, adhesives, pigments, drying accelerators, solvents and other chemicals. The solvents used in these paints are referred to as volatile organic compounds (VOCs). VOC’s keep the paint blended and smooth while it is in a liquid form, the VOC’s then escape into the air when it is applied to your walls. When VOC’s combine with other pollutants in the atmosphere it creates smog, Indoors VOC’s contribute to unhealthy indoor air which can lead to respiratory issues, headaches and many other illnesses. Conventional paint products can continue emitting VOC’s and other chemicals for more than a year after they have been applied to surfaces within your home.
What to Consider When Choosing Low VOC Paint
If you are interested in choosing a low VOC paint, the knowledgeable experts at Roland’s Painting recommend that you make sure the paint you are choosing not only contains a low level of VOC’s, but that the pigments that are used in the paint are water-based. Pigments used to color the paint can dramatically increase the VOC count when the paint reaches the tinting stage of the mixing process. Many consumers are concerned about the quality of water-based paints but high quality eco-friendly paint can be just as vibrant and dynamic in color than conventional paints.
Interior & Exterior Painting & More in Ventura, Ojai, Newbury Park, Westlake Village, Camarillo, Thousand Oaks, Agoura Hills & Santa Barbara California
Whether you desire low VOC or traditional paints, McKay’s Painting can handle all your interior and exterior painting needs. Call us to start planning your next painting project today!
