Use no-VOC primer (Day 32)

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.