Replies

1. 
   bc | Dec 18, 2007 07:26pm | #1

   yep not worth it...

2. 
   Hiker | Dec 19, 2007 01:48am | #2

   Sherwin Williams duration Home is a low or no VOC paint and is the premier paint product for SW.  Best paint I have ever used.  Obviously your GC knows very little about paint.  I hope they know more about other parts of the project. 

   Bruce

3. 
   MtnBoy | Jan 04, 2008 05:24pm | #3

   I've had good luck with Ben Moore's Eco Spec. Very low VOCs.

   SW's Duration exterior is fantastic. On my own home it looks newly painted still from spring of 2000. Can't speak to their Duration interior.

4. 
   shelternerd | Jan 05, 2008 01:27am | #4

   Different products have different behavior characteristics low VOC or not.

   Sherwin Williams Pro-Mar 200 is 95 grams per liter which just barely makes it low VOC and it's a good paint. I like Duron Builders Masterpiece at 50 grams per liter because it touches up really well.

   The Green Building Initiative threshold for Low VOC designation has been 100 g/l for a few years but is slated to drop to 50 in February. We haven't tried the ones with fancy names because we go by the 100 g/l threshold rather than the name on the can.

   ------------------

   "You cannot work hard enough to make up for a sloppy estimate."

5. 
   Joan1 | Feb 23, 2008 02:03pm | #5

   Try Benjamin Moore Aura.  It covers most of the time in a single coat, is very low VOC (better than EcoSpec), and supposedly doesn't need priming first. 

   I used this in our addition (over primed walls, since I'd already primed them before I heard of this paint) and was very happy with it.  It is expensive (about $50/gallon), but the single coat coverage compensates for this, so even doing the work myself, I  saved money. If I'd been paying a painter, or hadn't already primed my walls, it would have saved even more.

   The darker colors don't cover with a single coat as well as the lighter ones.  My white and pale yellows took only one coat, but a darker blue took two.

   I've used EcoSpec many times, and not been happy with it - very poor coverage, expensive ($35/gallon)... I was in the middle of doing all of my walls with this when I discovered Aura.  What a difference, and well worth the extra money.

1. 
   DonCanDo | Feb 23, 2008 03:07pm | #6

   I like the Aura paints too and even though it is low VOC, according to the technical data sheets (TDS) on the Benjamin Moore website, Eco Spec has a much lower VOC.

   I haven't tried it on bare drywall, but I think that primer is cheap insurance so it's good that you had already primed the walls.

   I can buy Aura paints at the contractor's price, but the savings would be insignificant unless I was buying many, many gallons.