Painting: Finding the Right Finish & Color for Your Home!

Have you gone to purchase paint lately? There are so many choices in finishes that it could make your head spin. And then there is the color, choosing interior paint colors can be a difficult part of the painting process. Not only does color change how your home looks, but it can also alter your mood. Here are a few things to keep in mind when choosing interior paint colors and finishes to create the right ambiance for you and your space.

First choose your finish! There are a lot more choices today than there used to be so here are some details to help you make the right choice.

 

Flat/Matte Finish

Matte finish looks like what the name implies… matte. It works great if you need to camouflage small bumps or cracks. It works well because it does not reflect much light so in effect will hide problem areas. Flat finish paint is basically the same as a matte and is good for hallways and ceilings. Flat paints do not stand up well to very many washings.

Eggshell Finish

See how an eggshell reflects light? That is how reflective it will be on your walls. Eggshell can also be used in any room but works especially well for a nursery or bedroom. One other plus for eggshell… it holds up better to cleaning than a flat finish paint.

Satin Finish

Satin finish paint is a little shinier than eggshell. It has a soft, creamy sheen. It’s the easiest finish to work with as it can be used in any room and works very well in a living room or family room. Satin finish is good for walls where you want low reflection and a warm look. This finish will hold up well to multiple cleanings and a light scrubbing or two. If you just can’t decide what finish you like, use satin in every room, it will alleviate all your problems.

Semi-Gloss

Good ole’ semi-gloss is pretty shiny and was used a lot in kitchens or other areas that needed to be cleaned often. Now they are mainly used for trimming doors and windows and reviving cabinets. Follow the link for a safe how to refinish trim option Refinish Window and Door Frames They are also good for heavily used bathrooms. The shine of a semi-gloss repels dirt and moisture well so it's good in these areas. Be careful with this sheen as it will reflect a lot of light and could create some uncomfortable glare.

Gloss

Gloss finish paint is very shiny and mimics the look of enamel or plastic. Gloss is the most reflective finish. It is becoming very popular to use for a dramatic look on cabinets, trim and furniture.
A lot of prep work is required with this finish. If there are any imperfections in the item you are painting the finish will enhance the problem. That said, gloss is very durable and will hold up to many cleanings.

Now that you have a finish in mind let's pick the color! 

 

Step 1 – Considering Mood

Colors can impact your mood. For example, colors like red, yellow, and orange can stimulate feelings of warmth and togetherness. Red is also a passionate color than can energize, while green, blue, and violet are cool colors that can calm and soothe. When choosing interior paint colors for your walls, keep in mind what mood or feeling you’d like to achieve.

Step 2 – Understanding the Color Wheel

Understanding how colors complement one another is integral to creating a harmonious and unified space, whether you’re painting one or multiple rooms. To choose colors that work together, use a color wheel to find out which shades balance each other out.

Complementary Colors

Complementary colors are found on opposite ends of the color wheel, such as violet and yellow. These colors are opposites, and they bring out the richness in one another, particularly when one shade is muted and the other is dominant.

Analogous Colors

You could also opt for analogous colors, which are hues found next to one another. Using two or three analogous colors together is calming and pleasing to the eye.

Step 3 – Thinking About Your Space

Colors can also be used to create illusions in your space, making a room feel smaller or larger. To give the illusion of higher ceilings, opt for a lighter ceiling color and darker wall color. To make a room look larger than it is, choose colors that are light and airy. Conversely, you can scale down an oversized room by using darker hues.

Step 4 – Planning Your Color Scheme

Once you’ve decided which basic colors you want in your home, consider using a color palette for each room. For instance, you may want to include an accent wall, which will draw the eye to that space and often make your room look larger. Although your whole house doesn’t have to be the same color, you should also make sure the color scheme flows from room to room, complementing each other to unify the spaces.

Step 5 – Finalizing a Plan

Once you’ve made the above considerations, you can develop a color plan for each room. With a plan in mind, head to your local hardware store to select a few color paint chips or samples. Don’t be afraid to experiment with different shades at this stage. While you can't go wrong with popular interior-wall color choices, be sure to tailor your color palette to your preferences.

Tip: Once you've chosen your chips, tape them to the wall of the room you’re painting. If you have the time, try leaving the samples in place for a few days to look at them at different times of the day with different lighting to determine the best hue for the room.

Need to Strip or Smooth Out the Surface First?

Stripping surfaces has always been the most hazardous task when prepping a surface for paint. Now there is a safe option that is skin safe and free of health hazardous fumes called EZ Strip. EZ Strip strippers and removers clean up with just water, won't damage the surface your stripping, and unlike other strippers are completely safe for disposal in your regular household garbage. Whether your looking for a stripper for your cabinets and trim, need a DIY friendly remover for painted popcorn ceilings, or a professional strength remover for mistakes, drips or spills EZ Strip as got you covered! Visit the EZ Strip website for removal details and purchase options today @ EZstrip.ca  

Sign The Petition: Getting Toxic Chemicals Off Store Shelves!

 If you’ve ever used a can of paint stripper, you know it smells toxic. But did you know that even short-term exposure could be deadly? 

 

Under the newly reformed Toxic Substance Control Act (TSCA), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently proposed limits on the use of two common chemicals in paint strippers methylene chloride (DCM) and N-methylpyrrolidone (NMP). Your voice can help make sure the final regulations are strong sign the petition—take action now to get these dangerous chemicals off store shelves and out of the workplace.

Paint strippers containing (DCM) have been linked to more than 50 deaths nationwide since the 1980’s—many from projects like refinishing bathtubs in confined spaces. Long-term exposure has been linked to liver toxicity, liver cancer and lung cancer.

NMP exposure puts women of childbearing age and pregnant women—whether exposed at home or on the job—at risk of harm to their fetuses. And workers chronically exposed to NMP are at risk of liver damage and cancer. There’s even evidence that solvent exposure in men can result in damaged sperm causing birth defects and low birth weight. For full article: saferchemicals.org

The good news is that safer alternatives are readily available—but we need EPA to ban both of these chemicals from the products available on store shelves and in the workplace!

 

Looking for an effective and safe alternative to chemical stripping? Visit the link below for my top recommendation to safer stripping! Thanks for reading!

                    EZstrip.ca

Water Power: Advances In Water Based Technology

 

Water, it covers 71% of the Earth's surface, the average human body is 60% water, and the most purest solvent in the world is you guessed it water! Using the most abundant resource on the planet water based technology has become a reality. Now we can use water technology powered products to help keep our water sources clean from some of the most toxic chemicals threatening our aquatic life and environment. One of the number one toxic products used in regular households and rarely disposed of properly is paint strippers. Chemical stripping products can be purchased by anyone at your local hardware store, pose serious health and environmental risks, and require special protective equipment/disposal that is often not followed. Methylene Chloride is a very common stripping chemical and the most dangerous. Its carcinogenic, over exposure can cause death, extremely flammable, not soluble in water, and completely devastating to aquatic life and the environment. It contaminates everything it touches! So what can you do? Purchase safe options, water based strippers are available and one company that has perfected and patented the best in water based removal technology is EZ Strip! Creating a full line of high performing strippers and removers that can completely replace the need for toxic stripping chemicals like Methylene Chloride is just what EZ Strip did. Remove everything from paint, varnish, lacquer, graffiti, glue, tape, stickers, decals, grease, gum, bugs, tar, tree sap, markers, crayons, wax, ink, adhesives, even painted drywall textures (yup they got something for that). EZ Strip water based removal formulas are 100% water soluble, biodegradable, skin safe, free of harsh choking fumes, and they work! You may not get the instant removal results you get with the toxic stuff but with a little patience we can help save the planet's most precious life giving resource, water. Let's face it no clean water equals no people! If you want to learn more about EZ Strip's features, benefits, and products visit EZstrip.ca today! The one thing we all have is purchase power show you care and buy environmentally friendly options the next time you shop.

 

The EZ Strip Channel: What's New On You Tube?

 You Tube as become the information hub for how to videos. Now you can teach yourself how to do just about anything with hands on visual aids just a click away! Watch step by step tutorials, engage in comment conversations, even share your findings with friends so they can learn too! EZ Strip has embraced this social sharing tool to share safer removal options when taking on tough removal or refinish projects in your home. Some of the most hazardous stripper and remover products you can buy at the hardware store can be replaced with safe and effective products from EZ Strip. Here are some short how to clips from The EZ Strip Channel on You Tube so you can see our safer options in action!  
 

EZ Strip All Purpose Remover

The Everything Remover

All Purpose Remover

EZ Strip Paint & Varnish Stripper

Safe Paint Stripping

Paint & Varnish Stripper

EZ Strip Popcorn Ceiling Remover

Painted Popcorn Ceiling Removal

Painted Drywall Texture Removal

Visit The EZ Strip Channel for more great How To Videos today!

Want to learn more about EZ Strip and where to buy EZ Strip products?

Visit The EZ Strip Website today!

What You Need To Know About Lead

 
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in WASHINGTON, DC on February 18, 2014 announced enforcement actions that will require 35 home renovation contractors and training providers to take additional steps to protect communities by minimizing harmful lead dust from home renovation activities, as required by the EPA’s Lead Renovation, Repair, and Painting (RRP) Standards. These standards provide important, front-line protection for children and others vulnerable to exposure to lead dust that can cause lead poisoning. Follow this link to see the list of contracting companies involved and the recorded violations committed. https://www.epa.gov/enforcement/lead-renovation-repair-and-painting-rule-february-2014

 

Lead Where Is It?

Lead is found in lead-based paints, including paint on the walls of old houses and toys. It is also found in:

• art supplies
• contaminated dust
• gasoline products sold outside of the United States and Canada

 

Who is the most at risk? 

Lead exposure affects the nervous system and can cause a range of health effects, from behavioral problems and learning disabilities, to seizures and death. Children six years old and younger are most at risk. If not detected early, children with high levels of lead in their bodies can suffer from:

• Damage to the brain and nervous system
• Behavior and learning problems, such as hyperactivity
• Slowed growth
• Hearing problems
• Headaches
• Anemia
• In rare cases of acute lead poisoning from ingestion of lead, seizures, coma and even death.

Lead can accumulate in our bodies over time, where it is stores in bones along with calcium. During pregnancy, lead is released from bones as maternal calcium is used to help form the bones of the fetus. This is particularly true if a woman does not have enough dietary calcium. Lead can also be easily circulated from the mother's blood stream through the placenta to the fetus. Mothers with high levels of lead in their bodies can expose their developing fetuses, resulting in serious and developmental problems including:

• Miscarriages,
• Premature births or low birth weight,
• Brain damage, decreased mental abilities and learning difficulties, and/or
• Reduced growth in young children.

 

What can I do?

If your concerned about lead exposure in your home test it. The most common route of exposure to lead is damaged lead based paint in older homes. Damaged paint, chips and turns into a fine dust that can be breathed in. Test kits are available at most local hardware stores and are easy to use. If your paint tests positive for lead consider hiring a certified remediation contractor to complete safe removal and disposal. Visit here to learn more about lead in your home https://www.epa.gov/lead

Visit the EZ Strip website at  EZstrip.ca for dust free DIY paint removal options today!

If you liked this read more on the EZ Strip Blog at EZstrip Blog today! 

New EPA Chemical Review: Are These Chemicals in Your Home?

Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency named the first 10 chemicals it will evaluate under the new Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act, the first update since 1976 of the nation’s primary toxic substances law. The safety reviews could lead to bans or restrictions on a number of hazardous chemicals in consumer products and workplaces, including asbestos, paint strippers, flame retardants and solvents. Half of the chemicals chosen for initial review contaminate drinking water, and setting health-based standards for them has been on the EPA’s to-do list for years.

On the list are chemicals you may recognize but be surprised to know can still be found in everyday products you purchase like Asbestos! Many Americans mistakenly think asbestos was banned decades ago. Though now uncommon, U.S. industry still imports, uses and sells asbestos and asbestos products, including automobile brake pads and clutches, vinyl tile and roofing materials. In 2015, tests found asbestos fibers in imported children’s toys! Another place Asbestos can lurk is in drywall textures on your ceilings and walls in older homes. Bumping or scraping these textures can release dangerous airborne Asbestos fibers and only dust free removal methods can be used to remove these textures safely from your home.

Also on the list for safety review but maybe not as recognizable are stripping chemicals like methylene chloride and  n-methylpyrrolidone (NMP). According to the CDC, from 2000 to 2013, at least 14 workers died while using methylene chloride during bathtub refinishing. In 2009 methylene chloride was detected in the drinking water of more than 20 million Americans, at concentrations that could pose a risk to human health. NMP is a solvent also used as a paint stripper, and in petrochemical processing, engineering plastics, agricultural chemicals and other applications. The EPA's 2015 risk assessment said it can cause reproductive and developmental harm, particularly during critical windows of development, from both short- and long-term exposures. The primary routes of exposure for both of these chemicals is through inhalation of the vapor and absorption of the chemicals through the skin.

 

The EPA should be commended for releasing the list ahead of schedule, but completion of the safety reviews and implementation of resulting regulations could take five years or more. Some public health and environmental groups are concerned that the new law will not provide the EPA with the resources it needs to quickly review and, if necessary, ban dangerous chemicals. One thing consumers can do is be more diligent in your research of products before you by! Look for safe alternatives for your removers, strippers, and other products. Be sure you always follow product directions they are there for your safety! For full article follow this link: New-EPA-Chemical-Review

One company helping to make safer choices for consumers and professionals available is EZ Strip. EZ Strip provides skin safe and fume free strippers designed to encapsulate the material your removing for dust free safe removal. Remove all kinds of paints, varnish, graffiti, and even painted drywall textures safely from surfaces with absolutely no dust or damage to surface. The EPA is working hard to make the choices you see for sale on the shelf safer but they are just getting started and there are literally thousands of chemicals in line for review. What can you do? Look for safer options and take your time when buying items your not sure about, EZ Strip can help! Visit the EZ Strip website at EZstrip.ca today for safe stripping alternatives because we care.

Popcorn Ceiling Removal: Test Before You Touch!

Popcorn, cottage cheese, Stucco, orange peel, swirl, and other drywall textures are not only an eyesore, they also may contain a carcinogen known as asbestos. The ceiling treatment was commonly used from the late 1950s into the 1980s in homes across the United States because of its ability to hide imperfections in handiwork and its acoustical characteristics.

The Clean Air Act of 1978 banned the use of the ceiling material containing asbestos, but manufacturers were allowed to use up their existing inventory, so popcorn ceilings continued to crop up across the country well into the mid-'80s.

How do I know if my ceiling texture has asbestos?

Your best plan of action is to test your ceilings for asbestos. You can DIY this process by purchasing a testing kit available at most hardware stores and submitting material samples to a certified testing lab.

 Here are some safety tips for DIY testing.

• Make sure no one else is in the room when sampling is done.
• Wear disposable gloves or wash hands after sampling.
• Shut down any heating or cooling systems to minimize the spread of any released fibers.
• Do not disturb the material any more than is needed to take a small sample.
• Place a plastic sheet on the floor below the area to be sampled.
• Wet the material using a fine mist of water containing a few drops of detergent before taking the sample. The water/detergent mist will reduce the release of asbestos fibers.
• Carefully cut a piece from the entire depth of the material using, for example, a small knife, corer, or other sharp object. Place the small piece into a clean container.
• Tightly seal the container after the sample is in it.
• Carefully dispose of the plastic sheet. Use a damp paper towel to clean up any material on the outside of the container or around the area sampled. Dispose of asbestos materials according to state and local procedures.

If you don't want to do the test yourself you can hire an asbestos testing specialist. State agencies have the most up-to-date listings of asbestos experts in your area.

 

My ceilings have asbestos. Now what?

First, don’t panic. If your ceilings are in good shape, you don’t need to worry, your ceiling likely will not release hazardous fibers. If you still want texture removed, notice damage, or abrasions, or if you are going to make changes in your home that might compromise the ceiling, you’ll need to take action.

Removing popcorn ceilings that contain asbestos yourself can be potentially dangerous job, so this option is not recommended. Instead, you’ll need a certified asbestos abatement contractor to remediate the contaminated materials using certified procedures. This will ensure the safety of everyone involved. Here are some certified asbestos abatement agencies in the USA.

 

My ceilings do not have asbestos. Now what?

If your asbestos test comes back negative there are some DIY removal options available. For ceiling textures that have not been painted just spray texture with a mixture of water and mild detergent to soften texture for easy removal.

For ceiling textures that have been painted (often the more common scenario) you can use EZ Strip Popcorn Ceiling Remover a DIY friendly dust free non-toxic remover product available for purchase at a number of locations across North America. This removal product is unique as it is the only truly DIY friendly (dust free) removal option for painted popcorn and other ceiling/wall textures that safely removes painted texture from drywall and other hard surfaces.  

Prefer to hire a contractor? The good news here is you can hire a contractor without the need for special remediation certification for often a lot less than a certified contractor. Popcorn ceiling removal has become the popular home renovation/update project of choice, and a lot of painting contractors are adding this service option to their repertoire.

For more questions or concerns on DIY popcorn ceiling removal visit the EZ Strip website how to remove page today @ How To Remove 

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