New Homes & Lifestyles

Beyond Color - A Guide to Quality Paint Selection

For many home buyers, it’s difficult to discern quality products among the myriad of choices that are available. The benefits of using a quality coating are difficult to see until the paint is purchased and applied. Typically, home buyers look to their builders or painting contractors to recommend the best paint or coating for their homes. These professionals understand why the cheapest paint isn’t necessarily the most inexpensive.

In short, better ingredients result in better performance. Unlike most homeowners, professionals have usually had the opportunity to use various coatings and can easily distinguish between quality products and those that miss the mark.

Whether it’s how easily paint applies or how well it hides surface imperfections in the least amount of coats, ingredients determine the paint’s performance. A high quality coating starts with high quality ingredients—and understanding how the ingredients affect the quality will help you understand the value this brings to your home.

Four key ingredients affect the quality of paint

• Pigment: A paint mix contains two pigment types—“prime” pigments and “extender” pigments. Prime pigments give paint its color and its ability to hide or conceal, whereas extender pigments add bulk to the product. Extender pigments are low-cost and have little value relating to the paint’s color.
• Binders: Binders affect characteristics such as stain resistance, gloss, adhesion and crack resistance. High quality paints are made of higher quality binders that provide better adhesion to surfaces and enhanced film integrity. This makes them more resistant to cracking, blistering and peeling. Latex paints contain either 100 percent acrylic, styrene-acrylic or vinyl acrylic binders, while oil paints typically contain linseed oil, soy oil or modified oils called alkyds.
• Liquids: The liquid in paint allows you to get it from the can to the surface and provides no added performance benefits. Top quality paints have a greater ratio of solids (pigment and binders) to liquids, while less expensive paints have more liquid and, as such, are more “watered down.”
• Additives: Ingredients that give paint a specific benefit it might not have otherwise are called additives. High quality paints might have common additives such as rheology modifiers, which provide better hide and durability, and mildewcides to reduce mildew growth. Additives such as dispersing agents keep pigment evenly distributed while preservatives prevent the paint from spoiling. Additives increase the cost of a product but provide significant and noticeable performance benefits.

Cost Versus Benefits

Spending more on quality paint will save you time, frustration and money. It’s important to know how high quality paint will affect your budget and the long-term aesthetics of your space. For a true understanding of costs, go beyond the initial price tag and use a “cost per year of service” comparison to understand the difference between higher cost and lower cost paint . Let’s say your new home requires 20 gallons of exterior latex. Here are two options:

1. Buy lower grade paint with an expected lifespan of six years at $20 per gallon.
2. Buy a high quality paint with an expected lifespan of 25 years at $35 per gallon.

By going the less expensive route, your out-of-pocket material cost could be $400 (20 gallons at $20). Since the paint is expected to last six years, the cost per year is $67. With higher quality paint, the material cost is $700. But if you don’t need to repaint for 25 years, the cost per year is $28.

Interior Paints

A top-notch quality interior paint will wash and wear in a home with children or pets. There are several benefits you can expect from a top-of-the-line interior paint:

• No brush or roller marks: Quality paints go on smoother than inferior brands, which results in a cleaner, more consistent appearance.

• Better hiding: Better ingredients allow the paint to cover the surface more thoroughly with less work and less retouching. In the end, fewer coats will need to be applied, which may save you time and money.

• Minimal spattering: When the job is finished, cleanup is faster and simpler because high quality paints are less likely to spatter.

• Better resistance to dirt: Paints with quality ingredients will be more resistant to dirt and require less washing and maintenance.

• Better resistance to scrubbing: When dirt does appear, high-end paints can withstand repeated washings while retaining color longer.

• Better resistance to burnishing: You will notice fewer “hot” or “shiny” burnish spots from rubbing and cleaning, which means less maintenance and fewer repaint

Exterior Paints

From extreme temperatures and UV exposure to excessive rainfall and high humidity, quality exterior paints are formulated to stand up to the elements:

• Better color retention: Quality exterior paints keep a “freshly painted” look sometimes up to twice as long as lower quality paint.

• Better dirt resistance: Dirt and airborne impurities do not adhere easily to a high quality paint surface.

• Better resistance to chalking: Over time, paint finishes can show chalking. Quality exterior paints resist chalking and hold the finish longer.

• Better mildew resistance: Additives such as mildewcides reduce the growth of unsightly mold, even in moist regions.

• Less blistering, flaking and peeling: The sun and fluctuating temperatures can have a tremendous affect on how well paint adheres to a surface. Quality paints will offer better adhesion for an attractive exterior that will last for years.

• Better hiding: High quality paints provide a higher build for better coverage so fewer coats are required. Hence, you can save money on products and labor.

Quality and the Environment

Using high quality paint not only benefits home buyers, it can benefit the environment as well. In particular, high quality paints exhibit sustainable characteristics such as waterborne coating formulations that reduce VOC emissions, emit almost no odor, contain low or no silica and contain microbial properties that resist mildew, bacteria and other microbes.

These paints can be applied without affecting people and their daily activities at the site of application. Recent technology advances in environmentally preferred coatings have brought new performance rich interior products to market that offer even longer lasting durability and higher-end aesthetics than previous generations.

These coatings have the unique ability to satisfy homeowners with impressive aesthetics and easy cleanup. They are “self-leveling,” providing very good hiding and touchup abilities and making them easier for your painters to work with. And high quality paint keeps walls looking fresh and clean longer.

Your homebuilder wants you to enjoy your home for years to come with the least maintenance cost. Ask about paint quality options and follow their recommendations.