Maybe I'm crazy but I live in an area with many historic properties and I've seen some new paint jobs where the paint has the appearance of a leaded paint (hard to describe - a dull metallic sheen, I guess). Is there anything to this...is there some way to achieve this appearance or is it purely coincidental?
Interior or exterior
I don't recall lead paint having a special look. The lead in it was lead compounds, not metallic lead.
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Leaded paint has not been sold in this country for a number of years now. I'm sure those historic homes may loaded with it from the past, but it is not in the past twenty or so years that it was available. Leaded paint was much nicer to work with though. You could get a high gloss and bright white.
Yeah, like about 30 or 40... :)
Really very little difference, if any, in the painting properties at all....it was simply a pigment choice that was the easiest/cheapest at the time. The flow and sheen properties were/are nearly independent of the coloration.
You can _still_ get a high gloss and bright white...just that high gloss is more expensive to produce and doesn't appear to be as popular these days...
I don't think you could tell a leaded vs an unleaded paint by visual inspection in a blind test (one where you didn't know which was the leaded sample a priori). The sheen is a function of what flatting agents are used. There are some lines of paints make specifically for reproduction use which attempt to match the appearance of early paints as nearly as possible. If they are real historic reproductions that may be the case they're using some specially formulated paints to achieve the look w/o too much concern for budget.
I'm not sure anyone can tell anything by "visual inspection" in a "blind test". :)
Huh? Those of us who grew up with lead paint, the kind that was banned, know that lead paint doesn't have any distinctive look, and it certainly doesn't have a metallic sheen. Don't have a clue what you are talking about. Maybe someone painted a house with an aluminum or metallic enamel.
Well, on second thought, lead paints tend to be very opaque and the colors are often bright, but many other oil paints achieve the same values.
According to Jason Rogers :
Older homes tend towards a certain look in paints - semi-gloss or gloss oil paints - especially after a few successive paint jobs. It was simply a matter of what style was popular at that time, and reproducing that style again with newer paints.
Obviously, lead paint has been banned for quite some time, so a "new paint job" won't have lead.
Seeing an _old_ paint job looking like that is somewhat more indicative of the presence of lead, than, say, a flat paint of similar vintage. But without testing you can't be sure, and of course "new paint jobs" won't be lead-based no matter what they look like.
Lead paint can't be matched. I went thru this a few years ago. They get close, but you can't polish it like the old stuff. It's over, just like the old road asphault and good duct tape. (Old rubber adhesive duct tape can still be had thou)
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You are right, lead paint cannot be matched. The closest I've come to the look of lead paint with it's extremely hard finish and beautiful, deep shine that looks nothing like those plastic paints would be Benjamin Moore's Satin Impervo. It's as close as I've come. The only problem with this product is that over time, it will begin to yellow if it doesn't have adequate lighting, say behind a picture on the wall. And by the way, there is a wonderful duct tape on the market again. It's Gorilla Glue Duct Tape. All of the Gorilla Glue products are excellent! Hope this helps.
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You are right, lead paint cannot be matched. The closest I've come to the look of lead paint with it's extremely hard finish and beautiful, deep shine that looks nothing like those plastic paints would be Benjamin Moore's Satin Impervo. It's as close as I've come. The only problem with this product is that over time, it will begin to yellow if it doesn't have adequate lighting, say behind a picture on the wall. And by the way, there is a wonderful duct tape on the market again. It's Gorilla Glue Duct Tape. All of the Gorilla Glue products are excellent! Hope this helps.
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You are right, lead paint cannot be matched. The closest I've come to the look of lead paint with it's extremely hard finish and beautiful, deep shine that looks nothing like those plastic paints would be Benjamin Moore's Satin Impervo. It's as close as I've come. The only problem with this product is that over time, it will begin to yellow if it doesn't have adequate lighting, say behind a picture on the wall. And by the way, there is a wonderful duct tape on the market again. It's Gorilla Glue Duct Tape. All of the Gorilla Glue products are excellent! Hope this helps.
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Benjamin Moore's Satin Impervo is the closest I've come to a lead look paint. Although spots that won't receive adequate light will develop a yellow tint over time, such as behind a picture. There is also 'Fine Paints of Europe' that has absolutely gorgeous paints, but those are way above my price range. I can only afford to be on their mailing list and get brochures and pictures. Hope this helps
Dawn wrote the following:
Original message posted November 13, 2005
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