Question from val
We had some water damage in our laundry room and today, the walls were repaired and painted. Unfortunately, they painted with Cloverdale Premium Eggshell – not VOC free. It does say on the can “VOC’s – less than 150 grams/litre”. I have 2 questions: 1. I don’t know if that is a worrying concentration. 2. Is there a way of correcting this, for example, if I paint over it with low VOC paint, will the VOC paint underneath continue to off gas. The painted area is roughly 10ftX10ft. Thanks.
Debra’s Answer
California’s standard for VOCs–the toughest indoor air quality standard in the United States–is 250 g/L, so your 150 g/L could be considered “low VOC.”
Are you having problems with odors? I’m not sure you need to do anything. VOCs are very volatile and outgas quickly. If anything, I would heat the room to speed outgassing rather than putting another paint over it.
Hi Debra,
I moved to Norway a few weeks ago. I just would like to share that here most of the regular wall paints have maximum 1 g/l VOC. What a huge difference. Europe has so much higher quality of life in every way…
Thank you for doing this blog!!!