How to Choose the Safest Paint

Painting With Environmentally Friendly Paint

Introduction:

As DIY homeowners you frequently get involved with painting your house, both inside and outside. It may be just a touch up paint task or you may be painting the entire house exterior or paint a room in the house. Although these tasks are not difficult DIY home improvement projects they can be a little hazardous because the paint that is available on the market today is a chemical hodgepodge of different chemicals.

The following information is to assist you in how to choose the safest paint for your paint project.

Paint contains thinners (know as solvents) that release volatile organic compounds into the air as they evaporate in the drying action. These contribute to a risky environment and can pose health risks.

Modern oil-based paints that are made with synthetic resins are called alkyd paints. They have less thinner and give off fewer odors and toxic fumes than oil-based paints. Thinners are an essential component of alkyd paint too.

Because the thinners in latex paint have always been much less than that in alkyd paint most DIY homeowners prefer using latex paint. Because of the hazards associated with oil-based paint some states have restricted the use or made them illegal in certain areas of the country. In many states the low solvent content of latex paints, about 8 percent, has been reduced to zero in some.

These low solvent paints are identified as “0VOC” paint. OVOC is an abbreviation for “zero volatile organic compounds”. This is good news for the environmental friendly homeowner. The only drawback is that 0VOC paint is difficult to work with because it dries very quickly.

OVOC is great house paint because of its environmentally friendly characteristics and it dries in less than thirty minutes in most cases. Although you may have to work a little more quickly with it and clean your paint brush more often, it is the best house paint on the market today.

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