Here’s a quiz. What is ‘surfactant bleeding’?
Possibility #1: Is it what happens to your arteries when you jump onto a hand grenade?
Possibility #2: Is it what happens to your brain during a divorce?
Possibility #3: Is it a discoloration of latex paint caused by moisture?
Since this is a painting tips column the answer is obvious, although if I didn’t know better I would have chosen either #1 or #2. They just seem to fit better.
A surfactant is a substance that is in paint that helps with color and package stability. Under very wet circumstances these surfactants will leech out of a latex paint film and form brown drips. The “very wet” conditions that I’ll refer to here is a bathroom that I recently painted for a client down county. They have two teenagers who shower in the morning and the bathroom has no vent. Those conditions qualify as “product testers”. To hold down the paint fumes , which these clients were sensitive to, I used Benjamin Moore’s new Aura line of paint. It is state of the art and if any water based paint could hold up it would be that one. The result though, is that this weekend I am going back down there to repaint the bathroom with oil based paint. The paint industry is trying mightily to phase out oil based paints. The latexes are getting really really good, but…the oils are bullet proof when it comes to sealing out moisture. And, they are still easier to keep clean. There are pros and cons on both sides of the latex vs oil debate but for a steamy, equatorially tropically drenched bathroom I’d remember the teenager test and go with oil.
Have fun PaintingBy Joe Adami, Local Painter. 914-980-7216 Email any questions to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
