Paint

When looking to buy paint for your building the first type of paint to look for is Low-VOC Paints. Inside your home there are more harmful pollutants than outside and very poorly ventilated areas can be extremely unhealthy which can lead on to symptoms such as headaches, dizziness and asthma. VOC´s or Volatile Organic Compounds are the airborne chemicals released during painting and are far more concentrated when painting indoors. What is surprising is some paints will even emit VOC´s for many years after painting.

Presently on the market there are various types of Low VOC Paints as well as new ranges of eco paints. Eco Paints are paints which are often made of natural ingredients and are improving in quality all the time. Most companies now are bringing paints onto the market which are water based instead of being oil based-oil based paints use far more chemicals. To qualify as a Low VOC paints must meet the standard of a maximum 200 grams volatile per liter of paint. Paints which have less than 5 grams of volatile compound per liter are known as Zero VOC.

Eco or Natural Paints often consist of paint made of natural dyes, plant extracts or oils and come in many forms, as companies begin to try and offer a green image many manufacturers are offering eco finishes,  sealers, stains, etc but presently pricing for these products has been considerably higher than standard paints. If you have a large area you wish to paint and budget is an issue you might want to consider using Lime Wash as an alternative. Lime Wash comes in a wide variety of colors, can be used indoors or outside and is reasonably priced. This is a natural product as Lime Wash comes from Limestone which when mixed with water forms the paint.

Another popular common natural paint is Clay Paint. This type of paint can be expensive although it is popular because the colors are usually very natural looking although you can buy colored Clay Paints on the market. The only down side to Clay Paints is that when they are dirtied you cannot wash them as you need to repaint over the dirty mark, so perhaps not suitable if you have a young family, the other drawback is they cannot be used outside either.