Compare water-based and water-dispersion paint

Every­one wants their home to be com­fort­able and beau­ti­ful. And the right choice of fin­ish­ing mate­ri­als is quite capa­ble of help­ing to turn hous­ing into a “nest”. And it is espe­cial­ly impor­tant to respon­si­bly approach the selec­tion with a lim­it­ed bud­get for repairs.

One of the cheap­est paints and var­nish­es on the mar­ket are water-based and water-dis­per­sion paints. At a low price, they are dis­tin­guished by good hid­ing pow­er, dura­bil­i­ty and a vari­ety of col­ors. But what to choose for the arrange­ment?

In this mate­r­i­al, we will ana­lyze what are the dif­fer­ences between water-based and water-dis­per­sion paint — and which is bet­ter to choose.

Water based paint

Water-based paint is an emul­sion of var­i­ous resins in water. It is they who have pig­ment prop­er­ties. Micro­scop­ic droplets of resins — min­er­al, sil­i­cone or acrylic — after the water base dries, paint the sur­face.

There are at least sev­er­al vari­eties of “water emul­sion”. They dif­fer pri­mar­i­ly in the addi­tive. Allo­cate sil­i­cate resins, sil­i­cone, min­er­al and acrylic. The dif­fer­ence is man­i­fest­ed both in oper­a­tional prop­er­ties and in the field of appli­ca­tion.

For exam­ple, acrylic water-based paint — the cheap­est option — is designed to be placed on wood, brick, con­crete and oth­er mate­ri­als. It cov­ers sur­faces with an even, but at the same time vapor-tight lay­er. In addi­tion, it is not suit­able for wash­ing or wet clean­ing.

But sil­i­cone water-based paint — a more expen­sive option — pro­vides both vapor per­me­abil­i­ty and resis­tance to mois­ture. That is why it is suit­able for appli­ca­tion on gyp­sum and sim­i­lar “light” plas­ters.

In gen­er­al, water-based paint is char­ac­ter­ized as fol­lows:

1. Extreme­ly easy to apply and use. Suit­able for place­ment by roller, brush and sprayer. To reduce the vis­cos­i­ty, you can use spe­cial­ized sol­vents, as well as white spir­it;

2. No smell after dry­ing. And when applied, it is also almost invis­i­ble;

3. Fair­ly fast dry­ing — in 2–6 hours. In this case, full hard­ness is achieved in 2 days.

It is also worth not­ing that the “water emul­sion” can be ini­tial­ly pre­sent­ed in var­i­ous col­ors. Addi­tion­al tint­ing is usu­al­ly not required.

So, let’s sum up.

Typ­i­cal­ly, water-based paint is used for inte­ri­or work. It paints ceil­ings and walls. It can also be used for fur­ni­ture, and some options — even for facade work.

Facade water-based paints are best suit­ed for appli­ca­tion to wood­en sur­faces. They are fire­proof and vapor per­me­able. How­ev­er, they do not cre­ate a durable coat­ing (as acrylics do), so it is rec­om­mend­ed to impreg­nate the wood with pro­tec­tive agents before appli­ca­tion to pre­vent mold and pests.

Water dispersion paint

Water dis­per­sion paints are an aque­ous solu­tion of var­i­ous pig­ments. In addi­tion, they include vinyl acetate and acrylic poly­mers. It is they who “bind” the water, which serves as the basis of the mate­r­i­al, and the col­or­ing ele­ments.

Water dis­per­sion paints are char­ac­ter­ized by excel­lent adhe­sion. That is why they can be applied to almost any sur­face. Even pre­vi­ous­ly paint­ed mate­ri­als are eas­i­ly and per­ma­nent­ly coat­ed with them. How­ev­er, the hid­ing pow­er of water-dis­per­sion paints is rather aver­age, as a result of which con­sump­tion increas­es.

An impor­tant fea­ture of water-dis­per­sion paints is dura­bil­i­ty. So, their oper­a­tional peri­od is up to 20 years with prop­er prepa­ra­tion of the base. This is due not only to poly­mers in the base, but also to resis­tance to ultra­vi­o­let radi­a­tion and direct sun­light. Paints retain not only the qual­i­ty and degree of cov­er­age, but also the shade — they do not “burn out” and do not “turn yel­low”.

The good vapor per­me­abil­i­ty of water-dis­per­sion paints makes them suit­able for appli­ca­tion on dry­wall, as well as gyp­sum plas­ters and oth­er “light” mate­ri­als. Mois­ture in the thick­ness of the base does not linger, but evap­o­rates nat­u­ral­ly, pro­vid­ing dura­bil­i­ty and pro­tec­tion against harm­ful bio­log­i­cal fac­tors (the appear­ance of fun­gus, mold, bac­te­r­i­al destruc­tion).

Water-dis­per­sion paints do not con­tain organ­ic volatile sol­vents. That is why these mate­ri­als are suit­able both for chil­dren’s rooms and for use in health­care and cater­ing estab­lish­ments. Some paints also con­tain wash-resis­tant poly­mers, mak­ing them resis­tant to dai­ly wet clean­ing, includ­ing dis­in­fec­tants.

In gen­er­al, water-dis­per­sion paints are char­ac­ter­ized as fol­lows:

1. Suit­able for roller and spray appli­ca­tion. The liq­uid tex­ture makes it not very com­fort­able to use with a brush. Can be dilut­ed — while ordi­nary water acts as a sol­vent;

2. There is no smell either when dry or when applied;

3. Fastest dry­ing. When applied lay­er-by-lay­er, the lay­er dries out in 30 min­utes, suf­fi­cient strength occurs after 2 hours, and full strength after about a day, and the spe­cif­ic val­ue depends on the tem­per­a­ture and humid­i­ty con­di­tions of the room.

How­ev­er, water­borne paints are only avail­able in white. So tint­ing is required. For­tu­nate­ly, large stores offer their ser­vices in the selec­tion of shades and knead­ing.

So, let’s sum up.

Polyvinyl acetate (PVA) have a low price. But at the same time, they do not sup­port wet clean­ing, are not suit­able for bath­rooms and kitchens, and are also soiled.

Latex and acrylic sup­port wet clean­ing, can be used in bath­rooms and kitchens. But at the same time they are expen­sive.

Which is better — water-based or water-based paint?

So, water-based emul­sion is suit­able for any work, includ­ing facade work, but it does not dif­fer in par­tic­u­lar dura­bil­i­ty. In some cas­es, water dis­per­sion can even be washed, but the price is high­er, and the sur­face needs to be pre­pared.

But the dif­fer­ence between the two fin­ish­ing mate­ri­als is not lim­it­ed to this. Let’s com­pare them.

So. If you want to achieve max­i­mum secu­ri­ty of the premis­es, to car­ry out work in the bath­room or kitchen, then it is bet­ter not to save mon­ey and pur­chase a latex or acrylic “water dis­per­sion”. And if the bud­get is very lim­it­ed, includ­ing not allow­ing for nor­mal prepa­ra­tion of the base, then you can lim­it your­self to “water emul­sion”.