Paint: Read your MSDS!

It seems like I spend every spare minute I have painting my house. I made the decision to paint my house myself for two reasons: 1) cost and 2) I wanted to be able to point to something in my house I'd actually done myself. I have many friends who have built their houses themselves or undertaken significant home improvement projects and feel inadequate compared to them. Several months ago I volunteered a day for Habitat for Humanity and was thrilled with how easy home building can be.

I knew paint was an area I was going to take a stand on from a green building perspective. I'm not sure why, but I decided I wanted to use AFM Safecoat paint. I'd come across it in my green building research and associated it with extremely low toxicity/low VOCs. Unfortunately, it's pretty tough to come by. The only dealer in my state is almost 45 minutes away. Not quite the same as zipping out to your neighborhood paint store! It's tough to sample colors at this distance. And the Safecoat paint isn't available in as many colors as the major brands. The Safecoat dealer was able to match some Benjamin Moore colors, and I bought a big batch of exterior house paint up front. It's a little shinier than I prefer, but looks good generally and went on nicely, though I didn't use nearly as much paint as the dealer said I would.

Interior paints are much more challenging, of course. I'm planning to use several different colors. And color selection is very much a matter of trial and error.

I checked my LEED checklist to see what paints would qualify for points. There's a chart of qualifying products that says the paint "must comply with Green Seal Standard GS-11, Paints, First Edition, May 20, 1993." I googled Green Seal and found a Benjamin Moore paint there, but no AFM Safecoat. I had a minor heart attack, although I think I'm okay, since the LEED rating system says products listed in GreenSpec are okay (which Safecoat is). But since Benjamin Moore is much easier for me to buy, I started looking more into it.

BM EcoSpec qualifies for LEED points, so I sent my mom down to buy a quart of a color I wanted to try. She came back with a different BM product, saying the paint store only sells EcoSpec in gallons.

I pulled up Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) for several BM paints, including EcoSpec, and for the Safecoat. I was disappointed the formats aren't uniform from brand to brand. But I did focus quickly on one section, Section 2. Hint: Good paints: "This product contains no reported or suspected carcinogens." Bad paints: "This product contains one or more suspected or reported carcinogens." Check your MSDS info, people! I sent my mom back to the paint store with a request for some products other than EcoSpec that don't have carcinogens in the hopes I could buy a quart, but the paint store reported they don't carry them. So it's back to the 45 minute trip!

It's amazing what a little research will unearth. And the folks at the paint store won't help. It's up to you. And it's very empowering.

Paint on!