Friday, February 20, 2009

Painting the Cave: A low-VOC paint review

Note, this post was written before and after the arrival of the Littlest Giant, see if you can tell where the break is. :)

As some of my loyal readers may know (thank you for being so loyal) The Giant and his wife are expecting a Little Giant, a "barely enormous" one if you will, "merely huge". Which is partially the reason why I have been so remiss in my blogging as of late. Suffice it to say, The Giant's days are filled with preparations; registering for goods and services, teaching the grand-giants how to use Skype and Cam *gasp*, and painting the Little Giant's future cave.

Of course, when the newest of the clan arrives, I'd like to make sure that the Littlest Giant has as much of a chemical-free existence as possible, since so much of the environment has already presented such a body-burden to the average person. So, with decorating comes painting, with painting comes days of eye-watering, headache inducing, nausea inflicting chemicals to be thrown on the walls to make the place look "nice". Meanwhile loading the body with VOC's like formaldehyde, butyraldehyde, benzaldehyde, and what-the-hell-I-won't-even-attempt-to-say-it-dehyde. (although cinnamaldehyde gives cinnamon its flavour. Mmmmm tasty VOC). So what to do? As The Giant has frequently stated, the post-WWII chemical/industrial complex has a pill for everything and a chemical to make everything "brighter, whiter, cover in one coat" etc. As is the point of this blog, nay my existence at this point, The Giant must eschew all of those "Modern Conveniences" but still not make my paint from milk and clay. (Seriously, check it out)

I know, I know, am I just green-washing myself here? If I were truly green, I would have gone for the milk. But, as in all things balance is key and this blog is about being green without having to resort to reverting to the 1800's. Also, as much of an artist as I like to claim myself to be, I'd screw the process up and have the wife and the Littlest Giant ridicule me to the end of my days. But I digress.

So, what did I choose? Well, milk would have been awesome, but not feasible, I'd still be painting the room. I would have liked to go to a local store for low-VOC paint, but alas none in my region of Suburbia had such a product. I am sure that specialty stores exist "In the City", but I was under pressure to get the cave finished asap as I had other tasks to accomplish. Sadly, as usual, the Home Despot was my destination. It was the only place, at the time, that offered no-VOC paint, and it was exactly what I wanted. The product: The Freshaire Choice, part of the Despot's Eco Options line.

A lot of information is on the website, so I will just give you my impressions. The base for the paint is the standard latex/titanium oxide combo. No surprise there, this is what makes it not milk based paint. Now there could still be issues with people with Latex allergies, so its not completely 'harmless' but neither are CFL bulbs and we still call them 'green'. The pigment is made with clay and sodium aluminosilicate (essentially aluminum salt, that you put on your armpits non-green deodorants). No petroleum bases anywhere. Well, maybe the latex, unless it came from a rubber tree, which I doubt. The base is mixed with the pigment, which is just a package of the clay that dissolves in the base. The whole thing is closed up and put in that big martini shaker that blends it ever so nicely. I got 1 gallon of the wall color (Arbor Vine, think sea-foam green), 1 gallon of flat ceiling white, 1 gallon of primer, and 1 gallon for trim (Poetic Light, *cue heavenly music*).

Upon opening of the cans, the smell was mostly mineral-y, with just a small hint of latex. The paint poured out of the can quite easily. Not super-viscous like the watery petroleum based products, but more like melted ice-cream. Honestly, the Poetic Light *cue heavenly sound* looked like melted vanilla.

The paint flowed very well onto the brush. It seemed to have this characteristic where it would warm up during use. I'm sure that wasn't the case, but the more I worked with it, the better control I had over it, and the easier it was to cut in on the ceiling and priming the walls. The roller brush took the paint well, and transferred to the ceiling quite easily. Granted, the ceiling was already white, so I could have missed a few spots. Priming took 2 coats as I expected. The walls were already baby-blue and thus took some extra effort to conceal. There was also one of those wallpaper boarders running along the top (the ones so popular in the 90's) that I refused to steam off, so that took an extra 2 coats to cover effectively.

I used to paint professionally when "I Was a Teenage Giant", and usually would develop a headache within a few minutes of working with a product. The ceiling and primer were done, and I felt fine. I did have the window open, but even with that and regular paint I would have a vomit-inducing migraine.

Thus ended the first day.

The next day Arbor Vine took its place on the walls. As with the ceiling paint, it went on smoothly with the same viscosity as melted ice-cream. Again the same smell, but slightly more mineral-y. I was amazed at how fast the paint dried. At first, I thought it was just the fact that it had been years since the room was painted, and it was just being sucked in. Within an hour I was applying the second coat. Again, it dried quickly. By the time I got to the end in the 10x10 room, the first wall was already dry. I needed a third coat to fully cover the blue (which turned into a really sickly color emerald with only 1 coat of Arbor Vine on it.)The Poetic Light *heavenly music* that went on for the trim was the same cut-in madness that reminds me of why I quit painting professionally when I Was a Teenage Giant. I'm not a details Giant, so one more window pane that needs to be cut in is one too many. Eventually the trim was finished and I beheld my work.

Well, at least I wanted too, I had to clean the brushes and get to bed, cuz it was already midnight.

Clean up: Just like standard latex paint, but it seemed slightly easier to remove. There wasn't the stickiness that petroleum paints have. Cleanup with warm water, really meant that this time.

Behold, the cave is painted

The next day I was able to move furniture in, the walls completely dry. The mineral smell was still present in the room, and the walls felt warm as latex drying is usually an exo-thermal process. The next day, the walls were cool to the touch but the mineral smell persisted. WEEKS later, I could still smell the mineral pigment. It wasn't pungent or offensive by any means, and it certainly didn't give me headaches or burn my nose like VOC paint does. Almost like you have a new stoneware, or new bricks, and that the surface is oxidizing. Slowly, the smell faded, and by the time the Littlest Giant arrived, the smell was gone.

Would I recommend The Freshaire Choice *plays fan-fare*? Absolutely, I already have. Is it more expensive than "normal" paint? You bet, $25 a gallon compared to $12 I saw from some of the other brands. Does it apply like other latex paint? Yep, almost easier to use in my once professional opinion, mineral smell is 'different' but better. What would I change? Less pretentious names like Poetic Light *heavenly music*