What lies on the surface: The latest in commercial paints, stains & coatings

WORDS NATHALIE CRAIG

There is now a healthy selection of low and zero Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) formulas to choose from which not only reduce interior odors but also help improve long-term indoor air quality. There are also paints and coatings available with inbuilt anti-microbial agents which prevent the growth of mildew and mould resulting in a cleaner environment.

And when it comes to durability there is a wide choice of products made to withstand the busiest commercial setting. Such technologies include UV-resistant paints that won’t peel, blister, and crack under the Australian sun to long lasting powder coatings with super high wear resistance.

When it comes to commercial flooring, solutions such as epoxy resin flooring ensure a hard-wearing surface that is ideal for most arduous industrial and commercial environments.

Chief Executive Officer of Ability Building Colours, Mitch Barber says Ability’s Duro Paint is an “excellent option” for exterior and interior paint jobs on commercial buildings.

“Many heritage buildings have been restored to their original finishes with the aid of Duro Paint,” he says.

The polymer-modified, long life surface protection coating is odourless, watertight, and available in a huge range of decorative UV-resistant colours. Duro Paint is suitable for application on walls, roofs, floors, pavements, ramps, stairs, tanks and pools. The coatings have a matte stipple textured finish that gives a subtle sandy feel (depending on the implement used to apply it). Duro Paint is safe to use as it is low in VOCs and does not emit harmful greenhouse gasses.

Ability Building Colours CEO Mitch Barber explains that Duro Paint is particularly effective for restoring old, tired-looking concrete and masonry structures. As one property renovator put it, “it hides a multitude of sins.”

Duro Paint has been selected for a range of commercial structures from very old invaluable heritage-listed buildings to modern architectural expressions. Executive Officer for The Royal Society Dr Robb Stanley said when the time came to refresh the historic Royal Society Building of Victoria, founded in 1854, they turned to Ablity Building Colours. Duro Paint was specified for the external refurbishment of the heritage listed building.

As Duro Paint is designed for historical masonry surfaces, the paint was able to reflect the look of the textured surface of the original limewashed buildings. Although the brick and rendered building was painted with a limestone colour until the 1950s, the original colour remains unknown (as it was stripped off completely with no residue being found). For this reason, a new colour selection was made based on a Heritage Victoria approved colour scheme. “What impressed us (the selection committee) most was the colour selection and the mineral finish of the paint which sets like concrete and is harder than the sand component and is obviously extremely durable,” Dr Stanley says.

“The Ability team has also been very helpful in guiding us through the process along with directing us to accredited applicators,” he says.

Duro Paint was also chosen for the concrete on St Kilda Pier in Victoria to fix a problematic and inconsistent finish that was not acceptable to the client, Melbourne Water.

They were looking for a remedy that was going to be relatively quick and didn’t involve replacing all the concrete.

“We presented the engineers with the idea of using Duro Paint as a coating solution.

Of course, their main concern was whether it would be durable and able to handle all the foot traffic without wearing down. It also had to look like concrete,” CEO of Ability Mitch Barber says.

“Of course, it was also very important that any of the product that might get washed into the sea during application was non-toxic or harmful to the environment in any way,” he says.

Another environmentally considerate paint solution for commercial projects comes from Wattyl, the Australian paint makers that specialises in coatings that are hard-wearing, non-slip and environmentally friendly.

Wattyl I.D Advanced, for example, is a choice for inside commercial buildings. The interior paint resists the growth of mould and fungus and offers advanced cleanability, washability and stain resistance. It also has an ultra-low VOC formula at less than one gram per litre, exceeding green building requirements.

A popular choice for painting commercial coating, this tough and durable paint offers aesthetics and protection for concrete, timber, and metal building exteriors. Solagard’s Total Protection Technology provides complete protection against cracking, peeling, blistering, and flaking. Its high-performance polymers and durable pigments provide resistance against chalking and colour fading in the extremes of sun and weather.

Wattyl was selected as the preferred coatings supplier for the Blacktown Hospital Redevelopment Stage 1 project which included a five-storey new inpatient building with 185 in-patient beds, additional outpatient clinics, a new in-centre renal dialysis unit and cancer care centre, medical imaging, pharmacy, and retail spaces. The $312 million project was designed to green star standards by architects and Jacobs. The building interior was painted using Wattyl I.D, in a variety of bright colours to help define the different sections of the hospital. Externally, Wattyl Solagard was used. Wattyl’s GranoImpact, a pure acrylic, high performance elastomeric coating, was also applied to the hospital exterior, delivering a high-profile textured finish.

Dulux is another brand offering a selection of paints for commercial applications. Several Dulux paints and protective coatings were specified for the new Victoria Police headquarters in Melbourne to meet both sustainability objectives and practical considerations.

Located on Spencer Street in the Melbourne CBD, the $650 million Victoria Police Centre was developed by Cbus Property as a purposebuilt 39-storey tower designed by Woods Bagot. As a high-profile, critically important building, it was essential that the products specified offered low-maintenance, long-lasting performance.