PennCoat, Inc. doesn’t paint houses or residential properties. PennCoat, Inc. provides industrial painting and commercial painting services for plants and facilities. Regardless of the market’s we’re willing to serve, there is still a large demand for quality house and residential painters. And even these painters need to have a solid understanding of what paint will work in which environments.
Paint for Interior Painting
There’s a lot more flexibility with interior paints. Unlike exterior paints that have to fight weather exposure, interior paints are isolated and protected from the outdoor environments. The safest paints to use indoors are water based paints such as acrylic or latex. These paints don’t contain any VOC’s (volatile organic compounds), and they are 100% solids, meaning that there are no solvents to evaporate once the paint cures. Water based paints have good adhesion, and can stick to drywall very well, and is the recommended interior paint for drywall and sheet rock.
Oil based based paints are the other option. They aren’t as preferred due to their low solids, solvent based composition. They have a strong odor that can cause neurological cellular damage. Additionally, because of their lower viscosity, they don’t apply as well on dry wall and sheet rock, and tend to bleed more than spread, due to the substrate’s high absorption level. However, oil based paint does exceptionally well with wood, grain, or engineered wood substrates. Wood trim, wood cabinets, and even wood doors are excellent recipients of oil based paints. Wood substrates can naturally develop an oily surface that’s emitted from the interior grains of the trees. This surface requires a low viscosity paint that can penetrate through the surface to build great adhesion, which oil paint does.
Paint for Exterior Painting
Exterior paints are a whole new ball game, and can weed out the pretenders from the contenders in the world of paint application. As with all coatings (residential, industrial, or commercial), the 2 key factors to consider are the environmental elements and substrate. In nearly every exterior painting project, a water based paint will be the optimal solution. Environmental challenges such as UV exposure and excessive moisture are not favorable elements for oil based paints. They are vulnerable to UV exposure, and will chalk or fade in color, and will eventually brittle and crack over time, losing adhesion to the substrate. Additionally, oil based paints have low tolerance to excessive moisture and water. The water is strong enough to penetrate through the coat and rupture the bond between the oil based paint and the substrate.
We professionally recommend 100% solid, water based paints for exterior work. Acrylics, latex, and other water based paints can tolerate UV exposure, and will retain their colors. Additionally, these paints usually have flexible properties that will allow the coating to flex and move with the substrate, as it expands and contracts in the heat and cold, specifically elastomeric paints. Water based paints can also withstand water exposure more than oil paints, because they apply a more impervious coating than solvent paints, decreasing water’s chance to penetrate through the coating, and breaking the bond.
Ultimately, PennCoat, Inc does not provide residential painting services. Our talents and services are targeted towards industrial steel, corrugated decks and ceilings, infrastructure repairs, and other challenging substrates that are outside of the ordinary residential substrates. But, that doesn’t mean residential painters should be informed of the most successful application, and need to always need to consider the substrate, and the substrate’s environment before they select a coating to apply.
PennCoat, Inc. has been providing industrial painting, commercial painting, epoxy flooring, and polished concrete services for nearly 30 years. Our experienced installers are trained and equipped with the proper knowledge and tools to ensure that every installation is installed efficiently and safely. PennCoat, Inc. provides service to Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, and Delaware. And we cover York, Lancaster, Philadelphia, Chester, Montgomery, Baltimore, Harrisburg, Dauphin, Bucks, Berks, and other counties in the surrounding area.