Have you considered ICI Lifemaster?

Michael

I said in my post that I do not have access to ICI.

Mari - do you have access to PPG?

Here is a link that might be useful: Pittsburgh Paints

Yes, I do (after checking the dealer locator, I've never used that brand before). You'd recommend the Pure Performance semi-gloss, then? Would you recommend I use their primer-sealer rather than the Kilz Low-VOC?

I guess I should read the thread before responding. I forgot this isn't the conversations side. :)

Please forgive me, Mari..I beg your forgiveness..

Michael

Mari - I don't know. I just spec'd my first room with the Interior Eggshell. Won't finish until mid-March. It's a bedroom and no primer needed. I do have a very nice contact at PPG and tomorrow I will ask what he would suggest for you. They gave me a preferred customer discount number for sharing that's good for 20% off paint. #CO 018450. If this product is a good fit for you, feel free to use the discount #.

Hopefully someone else has used Pure Performance and will have input too. I'll follow up tomorrow pm.

Heeheeheehee, Michael. No problem. All that baby powder's gone to your head! ;-)

Thanks so much, funcolors, I really appreciate it (both the discount number and the checking with your contact). For just plain walls I'd just use BM Eco-Spec or SW Harmony (even though I hate the local SW stores) but I had heard that their semi-glosses were the pits.

Baby powder? Ha! I was changing diapers this past weekend and let me tell ya, that breast milk emits some potent VOC's when deposited in a diaper!

Michael

Formula's way worse, so count your blessings! You can smell formula poo half a block away, I swear! BTW, I have a new niece as of 2/27. She's a formula baby. I'm not visiting without a gas mask until the kid is on real food. ;-) (Just 'cos I don't have any of my own doesn't mean I haven't changed WAY too many diapers... I sent a case of diapers for the shower knowing how many diapers a new baby goes through; my brother was convinced it was enough for a month, he was stunned when I told him it was about ten days' worth. LOL)

*wrenching the thread back onto topic*

funcolors, were you able to get in touch with your person at Pittsburgh? We hope to start tackling this project tomorrow.

Here's what I found out. He said that Pure Performance is a good seller for PPG. He would recommend the primer as well as the paint as he says they do work nicely together. If he had to categorize it on a quality scale, he'd put it just a notch below PPG Manor Hall. It is common for no VOC products in other lines to rank about the same, i.e. Harmony at SW.

Getting a black or espresso color is very doable and he reiterated what you already know which is that the colorant will indeed bring a factor of VOC into the no VOC base.

I also asked about the new Accent Colors base. It isn't a no VOC product, but with it being new I wonder just how bad it is, ya know. They are suppose to get back to me today withe Accent Colors VOC info.

Hope that helps some.

Lori

I found the TDS for the Accent Colors product on the Pittsburgh website (with some digging). The VOC content is 90 gm/l - better than some, worse than others. Thanks so much for the info-questing! DH will start sanding tomorrow while I trot off to the paint store - I didn't go today because the weather and roads were absolutely wretched. :-(

I'm resurrecting Mari's post because I'm wondering if there is any more info/experience out there a year later.

We are building a LEED Certified house so the paint needs to be certified low-VOC. Most of the major brands have something to offer.

BM Eco-Spec
Pittsburgh Pure Performance
ICI Lifemaster
SW Harmony

...and so on...

The painter does not have access to ICI. He wants to use a "major" brand. He will be doing most of the trim. I will be doing some of it. (Windows will only be factory primed...deliver me!) So, in addition to being readily available to him, it should be relatively user-friendly for me. I paint a lot, but mostly stay from trim work. Go figure.

Thanks all!

Amy, here are the one's I'd be investigating the current VOC, green status of:

Muralo Ultra Ceramic
PPG Manor Hall Timeless (beautiful, affordable option for trim)
BenM's Aura

Thanks Funcolors.

Turns out Aura is all LEED Certified. That's good news. I was less excited about using EcoSpec.

Someone is looking into LEED for me at Muralo. Apparently their certification is in the pipeline. Maybe they'll be done by the time the house gets painted.

My Pittsburg store in MA is mailing me their Green brochure with LEED details.

Would you lean toward the Aura over the PPG?

Well, value and function is always at the top of my list.

I have to say if Manor Hall Timeless comes back as fitting with your requirements, I'd go with that. Aura, even tho it is getting rave reviews and has plenty of positive spin, it's too new in my book for the scope of project you're talking about. I know Manor Hall T and it's final finish, durability, ease of use and that's what I'd trust and go with.

Definitely have PPG store spray out a piece of trim for you and get you a sample so you can turn your expert color eye loose on it and decide :D. I am partial to their "Commercial White" for trim in satin. Doesn't sound very chic, but it's a good white, nice final finish at a good price. Spec it so much they gave me a preferred customer discount code to share with any one who wants to use it, #CO 018450, good for 20% off any PPG paint product.

Gosh Guys'...

Have you forgotten about ACE's new 50g/L. Cabinet, Door & Trim paint?!?!? Levels nice like Cabinet-Coat! It's sheen is a Semi-Gloss, tintable to 98% of ACE's colors.

VOC-Legal even in Cali's SCAD, & the NE-7!

I found the odor to be negligible as well...

Faron

Hey long time no see Faron!

I think Amy is limited in brand selection by her painter -- which as we all know happens to the best of us! :D

Haven't had a chance to try the new stuff from ACE, but it sounds awesome. What's the approx. price per gallon?

Thanks again, funcolors. Especially for the thoughts on Manor Hall over Aura. Even for the color suggestion since I struggle with that, too! I am waffling between Simply White and Pointing, which I would have to try to match. Will take a look at Comm. Wh. when I get up there. No Pitts stores here.

Faron, I don't really know from NE-7 or SCAD. (Those aren't new C2 colors huh?!)

Do you know if the ACE is specifically LEED Certified? Or how I can find out. I haven't met the painter yet (which makes me crazy) so I don't know how amenable he'll be to "new" things. You know how it goes.

Btw, the Mercedes is for sale if you're interested. ;-)

Since it was mentioned in the earlier post as being important, although Aura is not 0 VOC, it's less than 50 and stays that way after tinting since they use 0 VOC colorants. As far as I know, ICI, PPG, C2, Behr and SW still use conventional colorants that can take the VOC's of a deep base well north of 150 gpl. As an aside, there is no LEED certification process for paint. Since LEED credits are based on meeting GS-11 VOC standards, the manufacturer simply needs to make a product under the limit in order to make the project eligible for the LEED credit. In short, the project gets certified, not the product.

Thanks paintguy for that additional kernel of knowledge. First I've heard that there is not a cert process for LEED and paint. Just GS-11? Hmmm...I'll run that by the builder.

It's been difficult to understand exactly what I need to do to comply. Lighting -- for example -- do I need Energy Star fixtures, ones that take a GS24 bulb or simply a regular screw in fluorescent bulb. No one at the builder's office seems to be absolutely certain. (grrrr)

Know when I said if it comes back fitting your requirements? Tried to word that as open as I could for a reason. lol! :D I'm sure you will plow thru it all and get it figured out. Hope you keep us posted on how it's all going!

Amysrq,
Whyyy...yes...yes those are new C2 colors!
(hee-hee! I'm SUCH a liar!!)

No "ACE" LEED info. for ya; Paintguy has the rest pretty-well stated. Yep...C2 & 99% of the others still use glycols/solvent-based colorants.
* C2 is eventually switching...sometime next year so far. They're taking their time on THIS particular phase of "going green", since it has such a big impact on how a paint COLOR behaves in the real-world.
* I wish I could say it's a cheap process! The existing colorant-line that they felt was the best is from Finland...Tikkurila/CPS-Color.
* Some of these aren't cheap either!! ONE quart of HR (High-Red), costs somewhere in the area of a gallon of Aura....there's a couple other expensive ones too....of the 16!!
* C2's LOVO may be in some outlets now...getting ours by mid-May.
* Had some VERY interesting info. from C2's Chemists regarding the testing-regimen(s) for VOC determination!! One of the guys has been a lead paint-chemist for a LONG time!

>>> I'll probably have to clarify/correct/modify some of this...but:
* The "main" test, #24 I believe, gets substantially less accurate as the VOC level gets below 50g/L.
* Some lines of paint, using this method, actually tested NEGATIVE...which is obviously impossible!!

(although...a paint that can REMOVE VOC's from the air DOES sound appealing!!)

* There is debate on which method should be used to rate all "Low VOC" lines!
* There's also debate on the "list" of VOC-class substances as well....sooooo this may take a while b4 "true" VOC-standards are comparable across-the-board!!

Faron

Faron, all your comments are interesting (as always) and point up the fact that we are still in the nascent stages of going green, learning as we go -- fascinating and frustrating! It will be interesting to see how guidelines struggle to keep the pace of technology.

We're building the first house in a New Urbanist, LEED Certified community. The houses will be very tight, hence the low-VOC requirements for all materials. Sometimes I feel like a pioneer and other times I feel a bit like a guinea pig. But, at least I won't be the canary in the coal mine!

I can only imagine how it must feel to C2 to have developed something so special and then have to go back to the drawing board, as it were. I can't get the stuff where I am moving anyway, so...it'll probably be Manor Hall Timeless trim for me.

As for new-fangled vs. old-fashioned in the low-VOC department, I will probably be looking at F&B, ICI/EK, and maybe experimenting with Aura for my own painting projects. I have to pick a single color for the whole house (which is torture for me!) and then go back and paint every room myself once I know and understand what the house needs.