Paint Reviews

Ratings Criteria and Methodology of Paint Reviews

NON-TOXIC PAINT vs. Zero VOC PAINT and Low VOC Paint

By the Green Paint Guru

This section is about the process of Paint Reviews for Non-Toxic Paint, Zero VOC Paint and Low VOC Paint. The game is relatively new. New players have entered and redefined the game and old players are trying to get into this new game. Unfortunately there is an abundance of misinformation as well as misleading and sometimes deceptive advertising which can be confusing. The articles and reviews contained in this section is designed to clear up any confusion you may have about Non-Toxic Paints and answer many questions that you may have.

The Paint Reviews are offered as an objective opinion based on my real life experience with the paints products I am reviewing. This is valuable inside info and at no charge to you. I am doing this as a way to give back to the community, which has been so good to me over the years. It is my sincere hope that these reviews will beautify your home, save you time, money and aggravation. The Paint Reviews will be available eventually on YouTube.

IMPORTANT. Please do not skip these first pages. These first couple of pages gives information critical to understand the process of the reviews and how each product was tested. If after reading this if you want to go straight to the product recommendation or non-recommendation, you may do so.

The ProcessThe paint was applied on new drywall cut into 2’ x 2’ pieces. Then I painted dark diamonds at random (this is to determine quality of hide). Then I divided the area into 5 sections. This way you can notice the number of coats painted and the result. I used brand new rollers of the same type for each test. Then I covered the surface with primer (except for paints that claim no primer is needed). I waited at least 4 hours before painting a coat of paint.

In between coats I sealed the roller in a plastic bag to conserve the quality of the roller and to reduce the amount of water used to clean up. After the paint was thoroughly dry, I inspected the panels. If I could still see the dark diamonds, I applied another coat of paint. This process was repeated until the dark diamonds were not visible.

The focus was primarily on popular Non-Toxic Paints and Zero Voc Paints (because that’s what I do) of Premium quality with a MSRP range of $24-$50 per gallon. One important thing to keep in mind is not the price per gallon, but the price per room. In other words, if using brand x takes five coats to get a proper quality job @ $23 per gallon, then that’s not $23 per gallon but $115 per room, not to mention all that extra labor and running back to the paint store for more paint. Compared to a paint that cost $47.99 per gallon but only takes one coat is only $47.99 per room.

The reviews were based on the following criteria: Quality, Environmentally friendly, Thickness, Odor, Sag, Dry time, Workability, Levelness, Coverage, Hide, Ease of use, Clean up, Performance, Durability, Scrub ability, Color Selection, Price per room and overall value compared to other paint brands. I share the pros and cons of each product.

Then I gave two reviews for each brand of paint. First I give a Short Review. This is a one-sentence summary with my recommendation as follows:

Highly Recommend

Conditional Recommend

Don’t Recommend

The Second Review is a detailed review.

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