The holidays are a great opportunity to spend time with family and friends. The smell of apple pies and burning fireplaces remind us that the year is coming to a close. It reminds us to be thankful for the great blessings we have and to prepare for the New Year. Visits from friends and relatives along with children playing with new toys, balls, Nerf guns and other wonderful gifts can play major havoc on painted walls and trim! Here are some suggestions that may help you in determining the right product for your home.
Washable paints and scrubbable paints. We see these buzz words on paint cans and advertisements throughout all of the major paint retailers. Are they one in the same? The answer is…Yes and No. Both washable and scrubbable paints allow the homeowner, tenant or building owner the ability to clean their walls. However, there is a technical difference between the two.
Washable Products such as Emerald and Duration Home from Sherwin Williams are both outstanding when it comes to washability, yet they are not highly scrubbable products. Washable products are made to release common household stains with little physical scrubbing and require a light detergent (sometimes just a water dampened cloth). In fact, if too much scrubbing is done on these “washable” products, the homeowner will scrub through the finish leaving the surface blotchy and making the finish, or sheen, inconsistent. The surface then must be repaired through touch-ups or a complete repaint.
Scrubbable Products are made to endure much more abuse. “Scrubs” are determined by a testing system often used by the manufactures that rates how many times a scrub brush moving back and forth can cross the same point of contact on the coating before entirely eating away the coating. It is a toughness test. This test does not rate how easily a stain is removed from the surface. However, scrubbable products tend to clean up.
Knowing the difference between these two types of coatings is important. When told a product is scrubbable, most homeowners are going to assume it can take more abuse than normal when cleaning stains. Washable products are often sold as scrubbable products when in fact their scrub count (how many times the brush crossed the surface before breaking the paint film) may not be that high. So, the next time you are purchasing a gallon of paint at the paint store, ask yourself a few simple questions to determine which product would benefit you most. If you are someone who constantly wipes down the walls, you may want to look for a scrubbable product. If you are painting your kids room or a kitchen where common household stains occasionally occur, a washable product would be ideal since they will release the stain the easiest.
Here are some examples of some products on the market that have great washability and stain resistance.
- Sherwin-Williams Emerald
- Sherwin-Williams Duration Home
- Benjamin-Moore Aura
- Pittsburgh Paints Manor Hall
- Behr Premium Plus Ultra
- Glidden Diamond 450