The Greens

Acting on a tip from my friend, Greg Merrill, I went to California Paint Company on El Camino Real in Sunnyvale, CA, to look for eco-friendly paint. Greg says that Benjamin Moore is higher rated than Kelly Moore (which I mentioned in Green Shopping) by Consumer Reports for paint quality.

At California Paint Company I talked with Thomas and he gave me a tour of the store. (He did this because I kept asking questions like, “Is that all you got that’s green?”) Benjamin Moore, like the other manufacturers, seems to be trying to eliminate VOCs from their paints. They have just replaced the Moorcraft Super Spec® line of low-VOC paints with a new Eco Spec® line of zero-VOC paints. (Of course, low/zero-VOC refers to the base, and tints can add additional VOCs.)

There are two big differences between the Eco Spec and the Super Spec paints they are designed to replace. The first is that Super Spec is designed to be low-VOC (below 100 grams/liter) and Eco Spec is designed to be zero-VOC (zero grams/liter). According to Thomas, the other is that the newer paint has the full range of colors that Benjamin Moore offers, unlike the former product. However, the Benjamin Moore literature says that Eco Spec has limited colors, so I would double-check on this before buying, although this may have changed since their brochures were printed. Colors in Eco Spec are waterborne, which means that the paint can be thinned with clean water and all you need to clean up is water.

Thomas gave me comparison prices for four different types of paint they offer. This runs the spectrum from their older Super Spec paint, bought primarily by contractors, through Regal® (the paint probably most often purchased by the public to do their own painting), to Aura® (“quite simply the finest paint we’ve ever made” according to the Benjamin Moore literature), to the new Eco Spec (again for contractors, but for green purposes maybe really the best paint of the bunch). I might note here that the literature says that Aura is also a waterborne paint that “meets the most stringent environmental regulations”. It may, but as “only” a low-VOC paint, it isn’t the most environmentally friendly.

What about price? First of all, the older Super Spec was considerably cheaper than the other paints. Just getting the contractor paint could save you 28% over getting Regal, or 44% over getting Aura, and that’s without dithering on the price. If you were a large contractor, you might be able to get a better deal. What do you give up for this? Well, one thing is the color options, which had not been as good. (But with Eco Spec, this problem apparently disappears.) For another, the consistency of the color may not be as good. You may not get exactly the color on the paint chip from the store. For a homeowner or designer trying to make their color scheme work, this could be a big consideration. But, on the other hand, Thomas told me that Super Spec tended to match better if you had to patch it.

Second, the newer Eco Spec carries a 35% premium over the older Super Spec. This is a fairly substantial premium for getting a zero-VOC base. On the other hand, Eco Spec is actually cheaper than both Regal and Aura (by 2% and 24%, respectively). So, if you are considering buying Benjamin Moore, then it is definitely worth a look.

Is this the best deal? Probably not. While Benjamin Moore might beat Kelly Moore in quality at Consumer Reports, the Eco Spec at California Paint Company was more expensive than the Green Coat at Kelly Moore. Since prices may vary considerably between stores and between projects (perhaps if you negotiate a good deal), I’m reluctant to provide a percentage comparison. You may also find that the quality matters more for your project. But, shop around, as they say.

In addition, California Paint Company carries Natura ™ zero-VOC paint, a premium waterborne paint. This wasn’t available at Sunnyvale and I didn’t get a price, but Thomas said they carry it at their Palo Alto store. This is a designer product, maybe comparable to the Yolo paint carried at Kelly Moore. In the Natura literature, it says that Natura follows the Gennex® color platform, but that Eco Spec has limited colors. It would be interesting to compare the price and quality of Yolo and Natura to see which of these might offer the best buy in this category, and to further compare them with their contractor-grade competition.

While I was at California Paint Company, I shopped for other green products. Before engaging the staff, I wandered around to see what else was available. I immediately saw a “green” paint thinner, but little else. I looked through the wood stains and noticed that a number of the cans were marked with their VOC levels. These ranged from maybe 300 to 500 grams/liter. I didn’t expect wood stains to be particularly green, so I wasn’t too surprised. After checking out the paints, I asked Thomas if he knew of any other products that had noticeably changed to greener equivalents. None came to mind.

I asked him about the green paint thinner. He said that he had had one person return it, complaining that it didn’t work. That’s kind of disappointing, but perhaps not fatal, especially if the trend is to move from oil-based paints to waterborne paints. Nevertheless, I suspect we will have oil-based paints around for a long time, so a good solvent would be a plus. On the other hand, a green thinner seems like an oxymoron.

I also asked about the wood stains. Thomas said that they didn’t have any that were low-VOC (where this means under 100 g/l), but that companies were working on that. So, we may see some waterborne stains on their shelves in the future. (I’m not knowledgeable enough to know whether waterborne stains are available generally.) Generally, if you wanted to “stain” wood in an eco-friendly way, you would probably use a wax or other natural finish. I’m not able to find a reference to the type of wax finishes I have in mind, but Aglaia Natural Finishes produces biodegradable plant- and mineral-based products with no petrochemicals or artificial resins.

One of the things I noticed about California Paint Company that I liked was that they had good information on colors and other paint factors. For example, I picked up a nice gloss level chart that shows 10 levels of gloss with paint samples (all in Hazy Blue). I also found a nice, but content free, brochure on how “the natural world can inspire a vision of the way we want our homes to look and feel”. Information on the Aura paints was particularly good, and there were good displays of color chips. They had a really excellent brochure called “Color Language: a color guide for home decorating”, which would be helpful for the non-designer to get some clues. (Designing a room so that the colors work is no small feat, and this only covers some of the basics. However, the limited advice they give is solid.) So, for the shopper who can’t afford a designer, or one that wants to independently research their facts, there was abundant material to help them out.

I also noticed that Benjamin Moore has partnered with others, such as Pottery Barn, to come up with color schemes. They had a brochure with Williamsburg colors and a corresponding brochure about visiting Williamsburg, VA. I personally find their Willamsburg color scheme particularly attractive, so it may figure in paint for our home at some point. (But I wonder how it would go with the southwestern motif I’ve got for other furnishings, like rugs. Hmmm.) Anyway, for whatever reason, I found the color options broader here.

Now, I know I’ve been remiss in not getting back to OSH HQ to find out about their green products, but I’ve still got it on my schedule. Maybe next time.

–Rich Wingerter