Whilst a common mistake to be made by some, exterior coatings are not actually paint, although from a decorative point of view, they do the same thing but today’s exterior wall coatings take you much further than a paint job on the outside of a house.

Whilst we think nothing of walking into B&Q to buy a tin of paint, selecting either gloss or emulsion, and taking it to the girl at the till, some projects require purchasing of literally MILLIONS of litres of paint or coating, and everything that goes with it too…………

So if coatings are far more advanced and involved than paint, what other types of coatings are available?

A few other types of coatings explained.

There are not just exterior wall coatings but many other types of coating on the market today, some for use by everyone, some by the trade or industry and some highly specialised coatings, and not just for walls either! Coatings used on a specific project could have been in development over a length of time to meet, for example, demanding condition such as extreme heat or cold.

Some projects around the world have coatings specially formulated to meet the demands of a particular job, for example the coating that was used to paint the Sunshine skyway road bridge over Tampa bay in Florida, USA, was specially formulated by Tex Cote of America (®), to meet the demands of the client.

(And i have actually driven across that amazing bridge, in a battered 1977, metallic brown 5 litre Buick in the 1980’s!). …………Eat yer heart out Starsky and Hutch!

So with that in mind, here are just a very small selection of the different types of coatings available……….

Floor coatings

I am sure many of you have heard of floor paint, in fact you may have seen it for sale in the shops, and of course you can buy floor paint online from Paintcompare.co.uk, but what about floor coatings? Floors of course have to withstand a lot of “traffic”, people coming and going…………..

Floor coatings are used in many places, both internally and externally in the built environment.

If you drive a car, you may have seen pavements painted green running alongside the pedestrian walkways; well this is a non slip durable floor coating that is applied to cycle lanes. There are floor coatings used in car parks, often painted blue areas to highlight disabled parking bays, or painted red, to denote a shared space where traffic and pedestrians tentatively mix.

If these areas were painted with normal floor paint, they would not last more than a few weeks at most due to the heavy duty use that they often get with people coming and going every day and walking or driving over the painted areas.

If you have ever travelled on a car ferry, the floors of the ferry or “decks” are coated with a special anti rust and anti slip coating, designed to withstand the harsh conditions every day, and also to ensure safety is paramount.

If normal paint was used in these conditions instead of coatings, safety would be compromised, as would the longevity of the coating, meaning that the ferry would have to be in dock frequently having the floor repainted, which as you can imagine, would not be cost effective or desirable. So once again, coatings beat paint!

Glow in the dark coatings

There are several coatings, and paints, that have glow in the dark, or at least light reflective properties. Good examples of glow in the dark paint and glowing coatings would be white road markings and also coatings used in buildings as part of fire safety, for example if the lights go out, you can still find your way out of a burning building and to safety.

For this very reason, many of the glow in the dark paints are also relatively heat proof. So which is better paint or coatings in this instance? Well again, it depends on what it is used for. A product like this would be used for a specific purpose, so often a company will approach a paint manufacturer direct to make specific coating for a specific job, for example white lines on a road, in the middle of a freezing country, so the coating is designed to glow, but also not to simply crack with the cold and fail.

So what about other types of coatings?

As discussed above, there are many different types of coatings for many different uses and here are just some of them, explained in brief detail.

Wall coatings

As most people know, “exterior wallcoatings” are our “thing”, you know, our “bag”, it’s what we’re really good at, really really good, and as such have successfully served the UK customer with top quality wall coatings at rock bottom prices, WITHOUT COMPROMISING ON QUALITY, ever since we first started way back in 1986, in a time when our editor didn’t have a single strand of grey hair!

Times have changed since then, and especially in the world of exterior wall coatings.

Back in the late 1990’s we were planning things online and coming up with ideas to start seriously getting into the internet, and providing information and ideas for our many customers. Since then, we have literally changed the whole way exterior wall specialists advertise and connect with customers, simply by taking the internet seriously, a long time ago.

We were literally laughed at by some of the more major companies in the exterior wall coatings industry (some of whom have now gone bust!- we haven’t!), anyway, exterior wall coatings used to be sold to people in a very out dated aggressive almost “American!” way, really “in your face” but we helped to change that and now people can sit back and relax and decide if a coating process or just a cheap paint job is right for them, instead of being pressured and hassled by a company to have work done.

Ceiling coatings

The best known ceiling coating, at least in the UK, has to be ARTEX.™ which was at the height of its popularity in the 1980’s, in the UK at least. Much artex is now being removed as people refurnish and redecorate their homes, in favour of smooth ceilings, but nevertheless Artex as a product itself can be used to great effect on many ceilings, especially ones in poor condition or ones that are uneven.

Acoustic (sound proof) coatings.

Imagine you are in an empty room and you speak loudly or shout, it echoes around the room. Now introduce carpets, curtains and furniture, and the sound is deadened, but is it acoustically good? Well no, and recording studios would be a prime example of where acoustic coatings are used. They have a special surface which either absorbs or reflects sound, especially good for home cinema rooms also.  These special coatings are designed to be quite thick, often up to 50mm, in order to absorb the sound. Other uses for this are in airports, theatres and cinemas, sports halls and concert rooms. There may possibly be some paints that have sound proofing qualities but they would not perform as well as a sound proof coating.

Industrial coatings

Coatings are used far more than paints in industry and there are a diverse range of coatings on offer, most of which the average person would not have heard of them…………….

The most significant difference between domestic and industrial coatings is that in most cases, industrial coatings are for a specific reason or purpose, decorative usually being of less importance, or not important at all.

There are coatings to protect from oil and gas, such as special coatings for tanks, vats and pipes, there is also rust proof coatings, often the most commonly used coating in an industrial environment, good for marine or shipping uses, and also special coatings for metal and concrete.

In many cases, coatings used in industry are often formulas and mixtures of various different coatings, a sort of “mix and match” for a specific use. A good example would be painting an iron bridge, which has to be functional and rust proof, but also has to at least be a colour that isn’t bad to look at because a lime green or luminous orange bridge wouldnt go down to well in the high street!

Metal coatings

Metal is a versatile material but often corrodes if not treated with a special coating. There are other types of metal coatings for specific uses, such as intumescent coatings, which are applied to steel fabricated buildings, on items such as girders etc, and provide a good level of fire resistance, because if a building made from metal catches fire, the metal will twist and flex, causing the building to collapse.

These fire proof coatings are sprayed directly onto the metal whilst the structure is being built. These coatings are often used when building large structures such as skyscrapers, blocks of flats, retail stores, garages and car showroom, and so on.There are several laws that require this to be done to new and existing buildings, such as BS 8202-2 and BS EN ISO 8501-1. These are commonly referred to as the “building regulations”, or a term used by surveyors, construction professionals and architects is simply “Regs”.

Interior wall coatings

These typically include Hygienic coatings for schools and hospitals, which usually have a decorative element, in fact colour therapy is also often used to aid patient recovery in hospitals, so the type of coatings used in this environment, also have decorative elements to them.

The main feature of coatings such as this would be factors like the following:

• Easy to clean and hygienic.
• Pleasing to the eye.
• Low maintenance
• Cost efficient
• Hard wearing and durable.

Roof coatings

A roof is by far the most important thing on any house or building, in fact more important than the walls. Our main contractors are agents for Andura roof gard roofing systems, so why not read a little more………

The facts about protective roof coatings

• All products used confirm to all building regs and carry the BSi and BBA certificates.
* All NPA products and services come with a written, insurance backed guarantee. Contact us for more details.
• A great and long lasting alternative to having a roofing contractor replace the whole roof, and far less hassle too!
• A range of natural colours are available.
* Eliminates the need to get quotes from several roofing firms.
• Elastomeric flexible roof coatings don’t crack or fade!
• A roof tile coating solves the problem and expense of having a new roof.
• Full backup and dealer support available, 12 months of the year.
• Full roof repair carried out before application.
• All plants, surrounding trees etc protected with no mess, no fuss.
• Gutters checked, cleaned or replaced if necessary, free of charge in some cases.
• Full written fixed price quotation with no hidden surprises.
• ”Friendly, courteous and discrete service by trained coating and roofing operatives.
• Roof tile coatings, along with our repair service means that your roof is less likely to leak, and is more likely to last longer.
• After a roof coating application, heat loss through the roof can be reduced considerably, meaning your heating bills will be lower in future, saving you even more money!

What is the process involved in applying roof tile coatings to my house?

• Contact NPA for a free quote.
• Roofing team arrive at your house at pre-arranged day and time.
• Unloading of tools and equipment
• Erection of safety and access equipment.
• Full process explained to the customer, in “layman’s terms” (!)
• Remove any plants and/or outdoor furniture to a safe place.
• All outdoor paths, bushes, plants etc, protected and covered from works.
• Garden fish ponds covered temporarily during the day to protect fish. (NOTE: Please advise team if you have a fish pond as we have a separate care policy when live fish or aquatic pets are in the garden)
• Scrape off and remove any plants, moss or debris on the roof and safely dispose of waste.
• Apply a special biocide anti fungal cleaning wash to the roof and brush away any dirt and debris.
• Cover up openings to downpipes to ensure waste moss is not flushed into gutters.
• Cleaning of roof by hand, with power washer and brushes until roof tile surface is clean, dust free and free of all green growth.
• Check and repair or replace any loose tiles or ridge tiles.
• Check and repair or replace any loose or missing areas of flashing.
• Check gutters and pipes are in good order and repair or replace where necessary.
• Apply two good coatings of Andura roofgard to the exterior roof tile surface,
• Clean up and remove any tools, equipment and leave site on good order.
• Documentation and warranty to follow in post after job is complete and payment is received in full.

If you want to find out more info about roof coatings then follow this link……….

This is an original article by Guy Alexander Bell, which you may NOT copy, or sneakily re-word, for your own means. This article is original and may only be printed off for comparison, education, training and evaluation. Thank you and we hope you enjoyed reading it.

What do you think of this? Why not create an account and comment on this article?

Now and again at NPA, although we deal with the UK market, some people come to our website from the USA, and farther afield.

We love being asked questions and heres one a site user emailed us with, from America. As we dont use or stock the paints they mention, we were wondering if anyone on the site had any suggestions for this person.

Here’s their message to us with their decorating problem ………….

I have a new house construction.

We have new sheetrock, new drywall. We sprayed a Porter PPG Primer on the walls and ceilings. We then sprayed on a Sherwin-Williams Visible solutions on the ceiling.

Had alot of streaks-roller mark or streaking even though we sprayed it on. Then we had Valspar Ceiling paint rolled on and after a total of 7 coats it is still streaky. Help

A site user writes…………

Hello,

I have a quick question regarding your wall coating.  What is the process for re-applying the protective wall coating after 25 years?  Does it need to be stripped and re-applied, or can a new coating be simply laid over the old?

Hi, thank you ever so much for your email, it’s always nice to hear from users of the website who talk with such enthusiasm about their houses.

It is very difficult for me to comment on a coating on a certain house as each job presents its own challenges and each house is different (one reason why exterior wall coating companies such as ours rarely have an “average” price list as no two houses are ever the same), however one thing is for sure, i am pleased to hear that you had a coating that has lasted for 25 years.

If I may, i would like to post this question on our blog to encourage other users to read and respond, although it would be posted anonymously, if that is ok with you?

In some cases, when the installation of the coating was conducted in a textbook fashion in perfect weather conditions with excellent quality coating materials and using a Graco president airless spray machine connected to a twin or single tool diesel compressor, then yes there is no reason why it cannot last for 25 years, in fact I myself have surveyed houses that have had a textured coating over 35 years ago (!), however admittedly it was waaaaaay past its sell by date, but (most of) the all coating was actually still on the house.

In that case, usually the best method is total removal and start again from scratch. This can sometimes mean the removal of the render, Tyrolean or pebbledash wall coating underneath the exterior wall coating also.

Basically in that case, the best way is to start from scratch and do the whole job again.

In some cases though, the coating and the wall surface underneath can be in such good order that, once satisfied the wall and coating are sound, the resins and solvents from the initial primer coat (sometimes called “slush coat”) that is introduced to the wall prior to spraying the top coating, will soften and bind the existing wall coating to the new coating being added, and the exterior wall coating surface will continue to perform for hopefully the next 25 years.

Removal is often the best way, but not necessary 100% of the time and again, the coating has to be analysed and the house has to be surveyed before a definitive answer can be given on your question, so please accept my apologies for this answer being somewhat generalised but I hope that you can understand why!

I hope this information helps you and I will email you any suggestions that other website users put forward, for your consideration.

Kind regards

Guy Alexander Bell. Bsc.(hons)
Surveyor
www.neverpaintagain.co.uk

<<<Garden wall with Mailbox>>>

A site user emailed us at NEVER PAINT AGAIN with a problem he was having with his garden wall, however our expert contractors don’t do solely garden walls, we can only do them as part of a larger job, so we thought it was a good idea to post the message on our blog and ask YOU the user if you have any suggestions what this man can do about his garden wall problems………

The builder built the beds with breeze blocks, then rendered and then painted. The rendering goes to the floor, which is patio slabs.

No damp proofing was used.

The rendering is cracking and coming away as the water is seeping through, and when frozen, is then pushing the rendering away.

The builder should have said our idea would not work, or certainly wouldnt if we used him!

Would you product be suitable for sealing the exisitng rendering, with a smooth finish that can then be painted, without me having to demolish what we have and start again ? Thanks…………

From “A. Customer” (Name removed for privacy). UK

So what do you think? Do you, the site user, have any suggestions as to what this man can do about the problems he is having with his garden wall?

TO REPLY, SIMPLY REGISTER ON THE BLOG (free and fully confidential service) by clicking on REGISTER on the menu down the right hand side of this page, post your comment, we’ll approve it and then it goes live,  and you can see what other people think about your suggestion. Thanks

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<<<<A house in Plymouth, Devon, UK>>>>

Whilst a lot of people choose to give us brief instructions as to what they want doing to their house, from time to time we enjoy a nice chat with someone who has experienced getting quotes from other companies to have their house painted and here is one of them!

A site user writes………

Hello, hows it going? I saw you on the internet after seeing one of your teams working on a house here in Plymouth and I see you have an office here, so can you contact me for one of your free quotes please if you dont mind as i want what they had on my house please!

I’ll tell you a bit about it. it is prob late Victorian, has damp, mainly at the rear and lots of cracks that someone at some stage has put a load of gunk in it to seal the crack but its obvious looking at it, it needs far more repairs done and some more cracks have appeared to the front and the side after the winter we had, which was very cold.

I have had 3 quotes so far but i am to be honest not interested in any as the salesman from these companies ( guess you wont be able to print who they are yes?!?),

anyway, the 1st fella was about 18 years old (!), was selling some sort of coating that that trowel on and roll into a pattern and looked awful but he tried, badly, to convince us it would look grate on our Victorian house! By that time we knew he was a fool and showed him the door. Grate indeed, it is a bit like suggesting buying a vintage 1920s rolls Royce and shoving alloy wheels and a sports exhaust on it as some fool says it would look “nice”, where do some of these wallcoating firm,s get their staff from!? (sorry guys, i dont mean you!)

…..and anyway he read a script and we couldn’t wait for him to leave, and then the other 2 turned up in flash cars, the 1st one seemed in a hurry to leave, even before he gave us the stupid price he did, and the last one we had around was a fairly nice chap dont get me wrong, but the price he quoted was absolutely astronomical and he didnt have any houses already painted in Plymouth o show us which put us off a bit!

I have heard grate things about NPA, especially as I know my mate had you guys do his house in Glenholt and he was well chuffed with it, plus he said you have display houses we can see in Plymouth so i would like to see  a few also.

Now I am sure you know, being from Plymouth yourself (!), that people generally dont have a lot of dough down here and as we only bought the house last year, it skinted us, so I would be very keen to get a quote s can you send someone around to see my house as i am very keen to get the cheapest price you can to have my house painted, thanks in Anticipation from John, Plymouth.

THANKS JOHN AND THANKS FOR GIVING US PERMISSION TO POST YOUR EMAIL, I HOPE IT HELPS OTHERS WHO ARE LOOKING FOR A PRICE FOR WORK TO THEIR HOUSE.

EDITORS NOTE: We never print peoples details unless they give us permission. We will update this post at a later stage if “john” decides to go ahead with us………….

Enquirer Message: we have a \”terylene\” sprayed coating to original house, and an extension in Durox block with render and paint on it. Initially I was just going to somehow renew the painting over the \”terylene\” coating, but it MAY be cost effective to do the whole house Can you, as a minimum, advise on recoating the terylene gables? perhaps 80 sq metres with no windows or doors

RESPONSE:

HIYA, HOW ARE YOU? YES, WE DO ALL SORTS OF REPAIRS AND PROTECTIVE COATINGS FOR TYROLEAN. I WILL GET ONE OF OUR AGENTS TO CONTACT YOU TO DISCUSS HOW WE CAN SOLVE YOUR WALL ISSUES. THANKS FOR EMAILING.