Resources
Glossary of building painting.
Matt or satin? Primer or undercoat? The trade’s vocabulary often decides the result. Here are the useful terms to read a quote, understand a finish and speak the same language as your painter.
Finishes
- Matt paint
- A non-reflective finish that absorbs light and conceals minor imperfections in the surface. Less resistant to washing, it suits ceilings and low-traffic rooms.
- Velvet (soft sheen) paint
- A finish with a very slight sheen, midway between matt and satin. A good compromise between depth of look and ease of maintenance, popular in living areas.
- Satin paint
- A slightly glossy finish, washable and hard-wearing. It reflects a little light and reveals wall irregularities more readily; common in kitchens, bathrooms, hallways and woodwork.
- Gloss (lacquered) paint
- A highly reflective finish with a smooth, deep look. Very washable, but unforgiving of the slightest surface defect; reserved for woodwork, doors and features to highlight.
- Enamel
- A hard, taut finishing paint, particularly resistant to moisture and knocks. Used on doors, skirting boards, radiators and wet rooms; it calls for very careful application.
- Washable
- Said of a finish that withstands cleaning with water and mild detergent without deteriorating. Washability increases with sheen.
Surface preparation
- Primer (bonding primer)
- A first coat applied to even out the substrate, block stains and improve the adhesion of the finish. Essential on new, porous or repaired surfaces.
- Filling
- Filling holes, cracks and chases with a filler before painting, to restore a continuous surface.
- Skim coat (skimming)
- Applying a thin coat of filler over the whole wall to erase unevenness and obtain a smooth base before the finish.
- Sanding
- Abrading the surface, by hand or machine, to level fillers, dull an old paint and promote the adhesion of the next coat.
- Light sanding (de-nibbing)
- Light sanding between two coats to remove roughness and grain — the key to a smooth finish.
- Degreasing
- Cleaning a greasy or soiled surface (kitchen, old woodwork) before painting; without it, the paint may fail to adhere.
Products
- Opacity (covering power)
- A paint’s ability to mask the underlying colour in as few coats as possible. Good opacity limits the number of passes needed.
- VOCs (volatile organic compounds)
- Substances that evaporate from a paint during and after application. Low-VOC paints are preferred for indoor air quality.
- Acrylic (water-based) paint
- A water-thinnable paint with fast drying and low odour. The most common choice for interiors today.
- Alkyd (solvent-based) paint
- A solvent-based paint, very taut and hard-wearing, with a strong odour and slow drying. Increasingly replaced by water-based alkyds.
- Build
- The capacity of a paint or filler to “load” the surface, that is to fill the micro-defects of the substrate.
Application
- Masking
- Protecting areas not to be painted (skirting boards, glass, sockets, floors) with masking tape and dust sheets — the condition for a crisp line and a tidy worksite.
- Undercoat (base coat)
- An intermediate coat that prepares and evens out the base, between preparation and the finish.
- Touch-up (patch)
- An area repainted locally after the fact. A good patch is invisible under light, which requires the same products and the same application conditions.
- Raking light
- Light directed almost parallel to the wall to reveal the slightest surface defects; used for quality control of the finish.
- Recoat time
- The minimum interval to observe between two coats so the previous one is dry enough. Ignoring it causes blistering and defects.
Unsure which finish suits your room?
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