Know More About Paint Selection

Normally, paint can be found in many types, sheens, grades of quality, brands made by different manufacturers and purposes. When you want to do some painting, you’ll have to consider the surface to be painted whether it’s a sunroom, kitchen, living room or even the ceiling. Paint can be largely classified as interior and exterior paint. Within each of these categories, you’ll find water-based and oil-based paints of which both of them gives out different levels of sheen. Each one of these paint types comes with almost any color. What you’re going to paint determines the Latex Based Painttype and quality of paint you’ll go for.

“The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.” ~ Bruce Lee

Typically, there’re various factors involved in choosing paint.

Selecting the Right Paint

Choosing the right paint means that you’ll have to know the color, sheen, adhesiveness and the type of paint (oil-based or water-based). The color covers and hides the surface and it’s usually born of various pigments such as titanium oxide, zinc oxide, umber and sienna. A paint should be able to stick to a surface while maintaining a uniform appearance. Water-based paints are referred as latex paints because latex is the binder (plastic, either vinyl, acrylic or a combination of both) used. The binder gives the paint the sticking powder and joints the pigment particles. In oil-based paints the binder is an alkyd (synthetic resin) or natural oil.

Do All Paints Suit Exterior and Exterior?

The type of finish you want and the purpose of the room to be painted determines the type of paint to be chosen. Most interior paints are formulated to provide good hiding ability, easy touch-up, good coverage, excellent stain resistance and splatter resistance. Interior grade paint shouldn’t be used on a surface exposed to weather elements. You need to use exterior grade paint when the surface to be painted is exposed to temperature and moisture changes. Both of these grades of paint can be either alkyds or latex based paints.

Ultimate Paint Choice

What’s the ultimate paint choice for interior/exterior? You can get your answer on painting 101: oil or latex? Latex paints have the longest-lasting finish with great gloss retention ability. Latex paints dry quickly and can clean up easily with soap and water. Alkyd paint takes longer to dry meaning that it gets more time to flatten out and thus it will be able to hide brush marks. Even though it has a strong odor, oil based paints are durable and you can use it on woodwork, primed walls and already-painted surfaces. To clean up this paint, you’ll have to use turpentine or mineral spirits.

So, when choosing latex based paint over oil based paint, consider the surface to be painted and durability. Many people would choose latex based paint because it cleans up quickly and dries faster meaning you can even apply two coats in a day.