What is VOC? And why choose Low VOC?

VOC stands for Volatile Organic Compounds, which despite their name are both man-made and naturally occurring organic chemical compounds. While not essentially toxic, VOCs have been known to cause some poor health effects, even at low concentrations.

Paints, especially solvent based coatings, are a major source of man-made VOCs. As a result, most paint manufacturers have invested a great deal of time and technical expertise in developing  Low VOC product lines.

Rochele Painting has a long history of painting numerous schools and child care centres where the consideration of Low VOC products is an important inclusion for the scope of each project. More recently, as more of our residential, real estate and commercial clients become more environmentally aware and health conscious there has been an increase in the request for Low VOC products.

We mindlessly watch ads on TV everyday. Most are from large national businesses and are designed and shot by big production companies.  Not ours! We designed and wrote our commercial in-house and stars family and staff.

The commercial has been an instant success and we are inundated with work requests.  However, not all the inquiries have been painting related.  Many people want to know the story behind the different decorating ideas and furniture found on the set.

Here at Rochele Painting we often get approached by quite a few clients to explain the difference between rolling and spraying when applying paint systems. Therefore, we would like to take this opportunity to outline the pros and cons for each application method and dismiss the numerous myths.

Below are the pros and cons of both systems:

Rolling on paint

Invented in 1940 by Canadian Norman Breakey, the paint roller is the traditional method for painting large surfaces such as walls and ceilings in order to achieve a smooth and uniform finish without the visible brush stokes.

Rolling on paint requires minimal preparation and clean up time and allows an easy flow of workmanship. Rolling on paint allows a painter to apply thick, and lightly textured coats of paint.