If you've decided to paint one of the rooms in your house, you'll have spent some time thinking about your colour scheme. You'll have looked online at paint manufacturer sites or will have taken a look at the colours in a store.
While you may have chosen a precise shade of paint from a specific manufacturer, your painter may tell you that they want to use a trade paint rather than pots you could buy yourself.
Why is trade paint different, and what are the advantages of using it?
What Is Trade Paint?
Most painters and decorators will use trade paints over regular consumer products where they can. This is partly down to volume and cost. Trade paints are often sold in larger containers and cost comparatively less than consumer products.
These paints tend to be of a higher quality than the products you can buy in-store. Often, they contain more pigment than regular paints. They have more colour dye in them.
Some products, such as emulsions that are used on ceilings, are also sometimes sold in a thicker consistency. The painter then thins the paint down with water before they apply it.
What Are the Benefits of Using a Trade Paint?
The higher pigmentation you get in a trade paint improves the quality of your final finish. This extra colour boost ensures that every coat goes on well. So, your walls will look better if you use a trade paint on them.
This extra pigmentation also affects the opacity of the paint. Trade paint has higher opacity levels than consumer products. Opacity is the way a paint covers a surface to conceal anything underneath it. For example, if you are covering over a dark-coloured wall with a lighter shade, you need a certain number of coats before the paint becomes opaque enough to conceal the darker colour underneath and to show its own true colour.
Enhanced opacity makes this happen in fewer coats. So, your painter uses less paint to get a true colour finish. This has cost benefits. The fewer materials a painter uses on a job, the lower your costs will be. Plus, if they buy at trade prices, your starting costs are lower in any case.
The fact that your painter wants to use trade paint doesn't mean that you can't choose a specific colour from a specific manufacturer. For example, if you wanted to use a Haymes paint on your walls, your painter can source Haymes trade paint in the exact shade for you.
To find out more about trade paint and your options, talk to your painter.
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