I am looking to do some painting in my house and would like suggestions for a envirnomently-friendly and inexpensive recommendation for house paint. Thanks in advance!
It's not inexpensive, but it's quality. I use Benjamin Moore Ecospec. You can purchase the Ecospec line of this brand for shades that are lighter. Darker shades cannot be accommodated by the Ecospec. The paint supply store will be able to advise you if your shade can be mixed in ecospec. There's hardly an odor (from the VOC's) when applying it and it covers as well as the regular Benjamin Moore paints. http://www.greenguard.org/Default.aspx?tab...&ItemID=300
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Somechic @ Jul 27 2007, 02:29 PM) [snapback]486241[/snapback]</div> I've used Benjamin Moore EcoSpec before and been happy with the results. A few notes are that EcoSpec does not cover as well as the normal paint (you'll probably need two coats where you may get away with one coat of high quality 'normal' paint) and it seems to me that the heavier tints carry more odor. But in every case the Eco Spec was well worth it for me. I painted a room with standard latex paint and left the windows open for a month before I could stand sleeping in the room. With EcoSpec the odor was far milder and undetectable in a couple days. Even ignoring any tree-hugging concerns about VOCs, I'd use it just so my house doesn't stink!
As a builder of green certified homes we much prefer www.americanpridepaint.com/ paint. It doesn't use masking agents to hide the VOCs and works very well. They can match any color.
I also like Benjamin Moore but it is pricey. Have you considered making your own? There are recipes for milk paint. But be very careful. If it goes "bad" you'll have sour milk smell in your house. Yuck.
how about no paint at all? or better yet, build a new house. have you heard of houses designed with "sunspace?" this is a new design concept that creates an "atmosphere" similiar to the Earths that self regulates the temperature of the house essentially cooling and heating the house onits own? read a great article about the engineer who is designing and building these houses. he has built several dozen so far and each he estimates saves enough energy to replace 50 automobiles. what he does is builds a "sunspace" which faces the southern skies. the sunspace has ventilation in floor and connects to attic, basement and the northern double wall. this creates a "breeze" that regulates the temperature of the house. as far as the no paint option, wood stain is what i used.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(DaveinOlyWA @ Sep 18 2007, 11:31 AM) [snapback]514328[/snapback]</div> Is this of what you speak? http://www.nrel.gov/docs/legosti/old/15971.pdf If not, have you other links?
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Tideland Prius @ Sep 18 2007, 11:28 AM) [snapback]514361[/snapback]</div> They have water based wood stains too, which is really handy for clean up.
at a glance, it does appear to be what i refer to. to be honest with ya, first heard about it about a year or so ago... actually met a person who built something like it just northeast of here. he was very pleased with the results even in cloudy rainy wa state.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(DaveinOlyWA @ Sep 18 2007, 12:31 PM) [snapback]514328[/snapback]</div> The walls at my place are currently painted insane asylum white & beige. I need color. Curious about the wood stain, what type of primer do you need for the walls? Does it come in a variety of non-wood like colors, i.e. dark green?
Look into milk paint. Its been around for many many years and the colours offered look nice as well. http://www.milkpaint.com/
Umm... You don't "stain" interior walls unless they are unpainted wood. You cannot use a stain over a latex, either. Your asylum white paint that exists is latex, you therefore need to paint with latex. You don't need primer for this at all unless you need to cover up things like water stains, crayon, or the ceiling of a heavy smoker. As someone who painted houses for 10 years, I have serious doubts about "eco" paint. It's still "latex". You still need to properly ventilate until it is dry. Once dry, latex paint is NEAR harmless. JMHO.
Darwood -- what happens if I use wood stain on an interior wall? To be honest, it sounds interesting, but I haven't done it for fear of the unknown. Also - does anyone know how to install brick on an interior wall? Is this even possible? I like the look of exposed brick but unfortunately I bought a house with none. Is there a way to install it? Or who would I call to have install it? Bricklayer? Contractor? Thanks for your reponses!
Brick interior walls are a snap. It's just like tiling. You use a wide notch trowel and spread on the tile adhesive and start placing your brick tiles (not whole bricks). The hard part is the look of the mortar between the bricks. To really mimic the brick look, you have to lay in morter in between all the cracks which is a lot harder than grouting tiles. It helps to have what amounts to a frosting bag to squirt it into the cracks, and then smoth it out with a special morter tool. Again, You don't stain an interior wall. It will ruin the integrity of the drywall and/or latex coats of paint on it. Stain is intended for unpainted wood surfaces only. You can use an oil base primer or paint on drywall(NOT recomended) but you cannot use stain. Stain is intended to SOAK in, whereas latex is intended to cover and seal. Stain will just run down the outside of the existing latex and make it look like dripping tobacco spit on your walls. Then when you go to correct it with a proper coat of latex, the latex will bubble over the stain since it cannot adhere.
I'm not sure but there are some great earth-friendly review forums, with consumer reviews for green products. I think this one is relatively new site, but it may give you a push in the right direction: WiseNGreener - Earth Friendly Product Reviews from WiseNGreener
