Gauging a Paint's Performance Before It Hits the Wall
For most people, the only indicator of quality on a paint-can label is the price, but a few key facts help explain the difference between a $15 can and one costing $60 or more.
(By Andrea Bruce -- The Washington Post)
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A gallon of paint can cost as little as $15 or well over $100. What's the difference?
The paint-can labels are not very informative. Many companies don't list their ingredients. Even when they do, you have to be a chemist to understand them.
For most people, the only indicator of quality is the price. If you want to know why a $60-a-gallon paint performs better than the $15-a-gallon stuff, you have to ask questions. But first you should know a few paint facts.
From the time the cave murals in France were made, about 30,000 years ago, paint has had three basic components: pigments, binder and solvent. The pigments, usually ground into powder, provide the color. The binder is the glue that holds the pigment particles together and to the wall. The solvent is the liquid in which the binder and pigment are mixed so that they can be applied to a wall. When the solvent dries, a thin, colored film remains.
The cave muralists used powdered pigments made from minerals and charcoal. Their binder was animal fat, their solvent water. Today some pigments are still made from minerals, but most are synthetic compounds. For latex, the most commonly used interior house paint, the binder is a synthetic resin, but the solvent is still water.
Although some paint companies might suggest that the water from a nearby mineral spring enhances their product, all water used in today's latex paints is essentially the same. The variables that determine quality and price are the binders and pigments.
At first, both the cheap and the pricey paints will look fine. The more expensive ones may offer more color choices, but most paint manufacturers offer more than enough for most people.
The differences begin to emerge after the job is finished and you start using the space. No matter how conscientious you are, the walls will get dirty. There will be smudges around the light switches, those errant bits of mustard that went everywhere when you tried to squeeze the last drop out of the bottle, and those dirty little splatters from your dog shaking off rain before you could grab a towel.
In 10 years, the $60-a-gallon wall, which can be cleaned, will still look good. The $15-a-gallon one may have been repainted three times because when you tried to clean it, the color came off or the stain couldn't be removed.
How do the binders and pigments produce these results?
Latex paints at both ends of the price spectrum have a white pigment base to which colorants are added. At the low end, the white pigment is made of titanium dioxide with clay, calcium carbonate (commonly called chalk) or some other inexpensive filler. It can have good "hide" and completely obscure whatever was on the wall before, but it wears off easily, as you will discover if you accidentally rub up against it or try to clean it.
At the high end, the pigment will be made entirely of titanium dioxide, which is much more durable but much more expensive. Titanium dioxide also reflects light better; to the discerning eye, the color looks brighter and more vibrant.
