High Durability Coatings for your Commercial Building
So, what’s the best way to protect the integrity and beauty of your commercial spaces? Beyond performing regular maintenance, you’ll want to invest in high durability coatings. The term “high durability coatings” sounds great on paper, but it doesn’t reveal much about what these coatings are made of, how they function, and whether or not they’re truly worthwhile. Let’s uncover these matters regarding high durability coatings.
What to Know About High Durability Coatings
What are High Durability Coatings?
Whether you’re painting a home or commercial space, you want to apply a durable, high-quality paint every time. That said, even the best paints for residential use don’t always hold up for commercial use. Most paints in the former category are composed of latex. When it comes to commercial building painting, some additional protection is often warranted. High durability coatings are a catch-all term for these commercial, and industrial-grade paint types. The good news is that for the most part, these paints offer the same color and sheen variety as standard latex paint options.
High Durability Coating Options
As just mentioned, there are several types of high durability coatings, each with their own set of benefits. Your commercial painters may recommend a particular type of coating based on your space’s needs and industry’s regulations. The main high-performance coatings include:
- Epoxy: common for high-traffic commercial and industrial spaces, especially for floors and walls, epoxy defends well against moisture, staining, corrosion, and impact.
- Urethane: typically used for exterior painting purposes (though also useful for interiors), urethane coatings guard against UV radiation (aka sunlight) and maintain their color and finish relatively well.
- Acrylic: relatively easy to apply and quick to dry, acrylic coatings are water-based, emitting low VOCs (volatile organic compounds) and odors while offering a variety of aesthetic options.
- Alkyds: these oil-based coatings adhere well to uncommon and round surfaces (i.e. rails, trim, molding, etc.) and are typically best for interior painting purposes.
- High Durability Hybrid Coatings: some commercial building painters might recommend a combination of some of these options, such as acrylic alkyd coatings, which provides the low VOC benefits of acrylic coatings and the ease of application and adherence of alkyd coatings.
Which High Durability Coatings are Right for Your Commercial Building?
It’s one thing to understand that your building could use the added protection of high durability coatings -- it’s another to determine which option(s) are best for your space. After all, plenty of buildings could benefit from each type of coating in some way (which is perhaps why hybrid coatings are so popular). Generally speaking, though, if your building’s exterior gets bombarded with sunlight, wind, and rain, urethane and epoxy are good choices for your exterior. If your business operations involve plenty of foot traffic, heavy machinery, etc., you could do worse than to install epoxy coatings inside. If you’re concerned about internal odors, employee health and satisfaction, and/or you’re on a tight schedule for commercial painting, high durability acrylic coatings might be best. If your interior is filled with rounded surfaces and strange textures, alkyd coatings can make your life easier.
When in doubt, the experts at Endure Painting can teach you more about high durability coatings, their pros and cons, and help you make the right call for your business. Of course, we’ll apply them, too, in order to ensure you get the best results. For more information regarding our skills and services, call us at (510) 458-2120 or send us an email at hello@endurepainting.com.
