Interior Painting - Acrylic vs Latex (color, cleaner, room, cleaning)
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Hopefully this is a simple question.... I picked up a can of interior paint (Eggshell) from someone giving it away on Craigslist. It is a famous brand (Behr or Benj Moore or something) but the label seems to indicate it was bought not too recently. One thing that then I notice on the label is that it says "Acrylic". When I shopped around for paint earlier, I notice that most on the store shelf says "Latex".
So I'm wondering whether there is really a difference between what I have and the 'regular' type of interior paint.
Also, I plan to paint a wall that was painted only 6 yrs ago. Do I need to put a layer of primer on it first or should I just use 2 layers of the same paint? The current color is beige and not too dark.
Thanks! The article seems to say acrylic paint needs to be cleaned up with thinner while latex is cleaned up with water (much more preferable). This does make a big diff though in terms of minimizing VOCs in the house as much as possible and ease of cleaning up by rinsing everything with water and wiping off accidents with a wet rag. .
The article was referring to art/craft paints for acrylics- where they seem to be more available.
But I have seen "acrylic" house paint that was still soap and water cleanup.
Read the label to be sure about cleanup.
I used to make paint when I was in college. Acrylic means plastic, or better said, the dry film is plastic. Latex means water based. There are literally thousands of different types of latex emulsions used in paints. Acrylics went out in 1985 when the EPA stated that acrylic paints gas when expanding and contracting with temperature so all of the paint companies had to reformulate their products. Acrylics in 1985 ceased to exist for residential use but that didn't stop the paint companies from advertising it as acrylic. The gentleman that made the acrylics possible for exterior paints was my boss where I worked and obviously he was a pretty old gentleman then. I learned a lot from him about paint films. I guess I should have been in the paint business. Nowadays most everything you'll buy will be a PVA based paint. PVAs go on smooth with a mild thicksotropic. Acrylics go on sticky and keeping a wet edge is nearly impossible. But a well formulated acrylic can last forever. They've now improved the PVAs that even they can last a long, long time. What you need to be more concerned about is the dry film thickness and solids content. The dry film thickness is what ends up on the wall when the paint drys. Obviously, the more the better. Application effects dry film thickness. Spray is the thinnest with an average .5-.7mil dry film. Brush is about 1.0-1.2 dry film with roller about 1.5-1.7 dry film thickness. The solids content pretty much will tell you how well it covers. The more solids, the better the coverage. Avoid the color yellow if you can. Yellow will make most paints photograph meaning the substrate will show thru like a photograph. Red in any paint will oxidize and is the only color that actually evaporates. Weird, I know, but true.
As long as the paint under it is solid in one color, it will mostly cover it but you cannot touch it up. Where ever you have double coverage from a roller cover it's going to show in an eggshell....most likely. You can try it in a small area to see but the probabilities are high it's going to show streaks of color. It's just the nature of the color.
While I was working at the plant I tested a high titanium white paint which has loads of solids and put it on a test strip. We sun dried all of our paints for testing. I took the same gallon of paint and turned it into a nice yellow. It would not cover the same test strip up to 5 coats and then I quit. Our lead chemist got a good laugh at my efforts so I guess it was entertaining to him anyway. I learned a lot about color from those days. Never paint a room grey as it's a depressing color. The most mellow color is green and the warmest is a light tan. The best finish for outside paints is a full gloss as it stays cleaner longer and because the surface is less porous, protects the substrate better. Do you know the difference between a washable paint and a scrubbable paint? Washable means you can take a wet sponge and wipe the surface one time only to remove any dirt. Scrubbable means you can wipe it a second time.
I am wondering what you would suggest painting polyethelene coated doors with? They are interior doors in a mobile home and I have been told that they are "more than likely" coated with a polyethelene finish..
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Polyethelene Doors
