Paint Brushoff : Newest Types of Oil-Based Paint May Help Air Quality but Users Bristle, Say They Fail to Hold Up

Let Patricia Negus tell you a few things about today’s house paint: How hard it is to apply. The way it looks worn after just a few months. And forget about scrubbing her kids’ fingerprints off a painted wall.

Negus used to paint her Chino home every five to 10 years; now she has to paint the interior every year.

“The new paint formulas don’t hold up,” she said.

Negus isn’t alone in her complaints. Other homeowners and painting contractors are unhappy about what they say is the inferior quality of oil-based paint today compared to that on the market a few years ago.

Contractors say they have to redo jobs because the new oil paint is sticky, dries slowly and yellows quickly. Homeowners say the paint’s finish looks flat and shows brush marks and dirt more. Both groups say the new paint is hard to apply and doesn’t last as long.

The culprit? According to experts, it’s air quality regulations that limit the amount of smog-forming volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in paint, varnish, primers and other coatings that evaporate when the products dry.

A number of air quality districts in California now require that paint have fewer VOCs. Among them is the South Coast Air Quality Management District, which covers Los Angeles, Orange and

Riverside counties and the part of San Bernardino County that isn’t desert.

But reducing the oil-based solvents in the paint and other changes weaken the paint’s finish and durability, said Robert Wendoll, environmental regulation administrator for Dunn-Edwards Corp. in Los Angeles, a major supplier to painting contractors.

The new oil-based paints with fewer VOCs don’t last as long and they perform poorly, Wendoll said. Water-based latex paints are unaffected by the rule but can’t replace oil-based paints in every situation, he said. For example, latex paint used on doors and windows tends to stick to itself, making the door or window difficult to open.

Sabrina Schiller disagrees. The Los Angeles lawyer and AQMD board member said she has had great results with water-based enamel used on the balcony of her home about four years ago. While there may be a few products that can’t be replaced, people can do without them, she said.

Schiller and other AQMD officials are pressing for even more controls on oil-based paints. Last year the board passed stricter amendments to a 1977 coatings rule, despite testimony by paint manufacturers and contractors that the regulations could cause additional air pollution. They argued that the new paint needs to be applied more heavily and more often, resulting in more VOC emissions.

Painters also need to add lots of high-VOC thinner to the new oil-based paint to make it spread adequately, Wendoll said.

His company was one of the 21 manufacturers, contractors and sellers that later sued the AQMD in Los Angeles County Superior Court, charging that the district didn’t adequately consider the environmental impact of adding more thinner.

Superior Court judges have suspended parts of the new amendments until the AQMD meets California Environmental Quality Act requirements. Spokeswoman Claudia Keith said the AQMD is appealing those decisions. Other parts of the suit are pending against the AQMD and other air quality districts.

The new restrictions are being phased in over the next few years. For example, the current restrictions don’t apply to coatings in cans that are quart-sized or smaller.

Some homeowners take advantage of that exemption, said Ruben Lucio, owner of Magnolia Paint & Wallpaper in Riverside. He recalls one customer who bought about 100 quarts of oil-based paint for his house.

That exemption was scheduled to end Jan. 1, 1992, although paint manufactured until then can still be sold or used for another three years. However, the exemption may continue beyond Jan. 1 because of the court suspension of that part of the AQMD rule.

Violators can be fined up to $25,000 a day if they sell or use the banned coatings, or manufacture them for use in the AQMD.

“Most of the rules are aimed at large users rather than Joe Public who goes down to Standard Brands once a year and buys a gallon of paint,” said AQMD spokeswoman Keith.

But homeowners who hire contractors or buy a new contractor-painted home are affected as well. However, last year most households in Los Angeles and Orange counties did their own painting, according to marketing research by The Times.

The oil-based paint in question accounts for less than 25% of paint used by homeowners, according to industry sources. Most do-it-yourselfers use latex paint because it’s easy to apply and clean up, dries quickly and has less odor. And it works fine for exterior stucco, dry wall and a number of other situations, contractors said.

But those who have used traditional oil-based paint say there’s no substitute for its hard, glassy finish and durability, especially in areas that get a lot of use or a lot of moisture.

Disgruntled painters say the new oil-based paints take even longer to dry than the old oil-based paints, which allows dust to settle in the surface. White paint yellows quickly if used inside (outside the sun’s bleaching effect keeps it white).

“I don’t like to use them on my inside walls,” said Stanley Pine, a chemistry professor at Cal State Los Angeles. “My wife complains you can’t clean them like the old oil-based paint.”

The new oil-based paints cost more, too. The ingredients are more expensive, said Al Russell, paint buyer for Chicago-based Sears Roebuck & Co. Also, lower-VOC paints are made in smaller batches for the few urban areas in the country that require them. Russell said 97% of Sears paint is water-based, but the handful of oil-based products have increased in price about 10%.

And “if it looks terrible people are going to repaint more often,” said contractor Don Bone of D. L. Bone & Sons.

Arthur Grant, a retired paint store owner who lives in Santa Ana, once painted his kitchen with latex and within two years his wife wanted to get rid of it because it was impossible to clean. He repainted with an oil-based coating and still has that eight years later.

Some of the worst problems occur when homeowners apply water-based paint over existing oil-based paint, Grant said. His son had to remove all the latex paint inside his house because it was peeling off the walls.

When a traditional oil-based primer could be used first, it penetrated the old surface so the new one could adhere properly, said contractor Bone. But without that type of high-VOC primer, the new latex coat is like a wet piece of paper sitting on the old oil-based surface, he said.

“Lo and behold, in a few weeks it’s peeling to the old surface,” he said. The painter has to strip the peeling coat and start over, thus creating more VOC emissions, Bone said. It’s difficult to make the new paint stick without the primer underneath--you need to give the surface a hard sanding to cut through the old enamel, and it may take two new coats to get enough coverage, he said.

Even if the paint doesn’t peel, “if it doesn’t look right it’s always the contractor’s fault,” Bone said.

“When they’re paying a professional they get really mad” if they don’t like the finish or a door sticks, said Mark Robson, president of Ram-Mar Painting Inc. in Hesperia. “They say you used cheap paint.”

“Not only do they come back (to complain), they bring their lawyers,” said industry spokesman Wendoll. Most manufacturers have been sued at times because customers were unhappy about a paint job, especially when it happens on a $500,000 custom home.

Along with more expensive paint, labor costs are higher because the paint is thicker and takes longer to spread, Robson said.

“It does take more effort to use these new products,” said Bill Sessa, spokesman for the state Air Resources Board, which developed rule guidelines for local air quality districts. “You can get the same results, but the paint is not the same.”

A 1986 study by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found that latex paint then available had lower gloss than oil-based paint, but the gloss did last longer.

The study also noted that ads for latex paints often claim they last as long and perform as well as oil-based paints.

Such claims may be a strategy to attract business rather than proof the paint lasts that long, Wendoll said. Because average homeowners stay in a particular home only seven years, and don’t save sales receipts, few purchasers are going to ask that a 10-year warranty be honored, he said.

Wendoll said latex paint doesn’t last nearly as long as oil-based, no matter how good the preparation.

Water-based paint won’t form as hard a surface, remains sticky and turns chalky outside. Latex paints are also more affected by temperature and humidity, Wendoll said.

Air quality officials, however, said consumers should try different brands of latex and the new oil-based paint. They also suggested thoroughly cleaning and sanding the area to be painted so the coating will adhere better.

Homeowner Negus rejects those theories.

“I’ve tried everything,” she said. “I always buy the best, the top of the line, and it doesn’t last.” Despite following instructions, she said, the paint looks so bad that she is repainting constantly, making the air quality worse than if she painted every 10 years with a traditional oil-based paint.

It’s true oil-based paint isn’t the same anymore, but latexes can work, said paint buyer Russell.

A lot of good water-based products are available now, said store owner Lucio, although some people prefer oil. He suggested that homeowners check Consumer Reports magazine’s paint research to see how various brands perform.

Ironically, water-based paint may be more harmful to air quality than oil-based paint, Wendoll said. The solvent used in latex paint is potentially more reactive in the atmosphere than the type used in oil-based paint, he said.

The AQMD is doing more research on those claims, but the ARB’s Sessa said there is not enough difference to be significant. Eventually the AQMD wants to switch to all water-based paints as technology improves, said board member Schiller.

“We can adjust our habits,” Schiller said. A lot of people are satisfied with the new paints, she said, and those who aren’t can try alternatives, like putting tile in the shower area instead of paint.

Paint manufacturers and contractors said they want to breathe clean air too, but they also want good paint.

“There’s always a price to pay for clean air,” Schiller said. “Do we pay a price with smog or whether a paint goes on easily?”