Sorry for the delays in posting this weekend. DH and I have been painting. We moved into our house 7 years ago, and everything was painted the standard "builder's beige". It's taken us 7 years, but we're down to the final two rooms to paint.
According to the Pollution Probe's Primer on VOCs. "some VOCs are a human health concern either directly through their toxic properties or when they react with nitrogen oxides in the presence of sunlight to form ground-level ozone(a major component of smog)." (http://www.pollutionprobe.org/Reports/vocprimer.pdf )
I certainly don't want to contribute to the smog problem in our cities, so DH and I agreed to try low-VOC paint and primer for this project. Off he went to Home Depot.
It turns out he could buy no-VOC primer, but couldn't get low VOC paint. The colour we wanted to use requires a tinted base. All the VOCs are in the paint tint - the darker the colour, the more VOCs it contains.
The primer went on beautifully, and really didn't have any odour to it. The paint was great, but there was a real smell to it that is still noticeable today (two days later).
Hopefully when we paint the last two rooms, we will be able to use the low VOC paint.
You might also want to think about anna sova paints for future projects - I love their paint! It smells like milkshakes and goes on thick, so I only had to do one coat (less work is always good in my book lol).
ReplyDeleteI love hearing how you're getting through the "builder's beige" -- our house was painted throughout with the previous owner's favourite colour: baby blue. After 8 years, we've done almost the whole house. Feels great.
ReplyDeleteBunny - I haven't heard of Anna Sova paints - where would I find them?
ReplyDeleteSorry! Should've left their address in my first comment . .
ReplyDeletehttp://www.healthyzerovocpaint.com/
Thanks - I'll check it out.
ReplyDelete