A review of Dulux Trade Ecosure Undercoat and Gloss

Following on from my last review for TradeXpress, I am doing one this time for Dulux’s Ecosure range. Specifically I am reviewing the Ecosure water-based undercoat and water-based Gloss. Ecosure is Dulux Trade paint that reduces the impact on the environment even further than their standard paints by 30%. This means even lower VOC‘s.

I have never been a big fan of water-based topcoats and have not got on well with them in the past, so was interested to see how things have changed and improved.

Dulux Ecosure Water-Based Undercoat

I have been using water-based undercoat for many years now and I love it and I use it all the time so wasn’t too surprised to see this in the Ecosure range. Preparation is the same as for any other undercoat, i.e. abrade the surface, make sure the surface is sound, clean and dry. I applied the undercoat using a synthetic brush as recommended for this type of paint, and I was pleased with the results, I was using white undercoat and going over a cream colour. Coverage was good, with good opacity, for a strong colour change a second coat is advised.

I was slightly disappointed with the drying time of 6 hours, this obviously depends on the situation you are working in but the undercoat I am use to using only takes 1-2 hours to dry, so I had to leave the undercoat to dry fully overnight. Coming back in the morning the undercoat had dried leaving a good surface to apply the Gloss too.

The coverage is around 16m² which is only slightly under the standard undercoat coverage. The smell, well being a low VOC and water-based paint the smell was low. I know a lot of people hate the smell of oil-based undercoats and Gloss so will be pleasantly surprised by this paint.

Ecosure Water-Based undercoat comes in pure brilliant white but can be colour mixed, it comes in 2.5L and 5L tins, prices are around £27 and £47 respectively and a colour mixing starts at around £30.
The datasheet for Ecosure Undercoat is 528.

Dulux Ecosure Water-Based Gloss

Like I said in my introduction, I’ve never been a big fan of water-based topcoats so was a little dubious about what this Gloss could do. I applied the Gloss over my previously prepared and Ecosure water-based undercoated surface that I had left to dry overnight.

Continue reading Dulux Trade Ecosure

A review of Dulux Trade Diamond Matt

“A tough, washable matt emulsion with 10 times the durability of silk emulsions” – quote Dulux Trade

I was recently asked by TradeXpress to review the Dulux Trade Diamond Matt, Pure Brilliant White emulsion; I used this product both on a ceiling and walls to review this product.

As I opened the tin I thought it had more odour then the normal trade paint, but maybe that’s just me. It isn’t a strong smell and doesn’t linger so wasn’t an issue. I was impressed by the opacity and how it covered the artexed ceiling I painted. I was also impressed with the whiteness, it certainly was a pure brilliant white.

The paint went on well; the coverage is on par with normal Matt emulsion although slightly less at 16m² per litre. However, drying time is increased with a recoat time of 4-6 hours compared to 2-4 hours of vinyl matt. Touch dry will obviously depend on the conditions in which you are working but for me it took around 3 hours for each coat to fully dry.

Durability and Stain Resistance

The big selling point of this paint is of course it’s durability and stain resistance and the fact you can wash marks off without getting that ‘buffed sheen’ look you normally get from vinyl matt emulsions. I have tried rubbing a small area of the wall I painted and I couldn’t see any obvious signs of a sheen appearing.

The Dulux Trade datasheet (447) for this product states it is suitable for use in Kitchens and Bathrooms due to it’s moisture resistant properties. For this review I used Dulux Trade Diamond Matt Pure Brilliant White on a Kitchen ceiling and walls in a cupboard. I am confident this paint will hold up well in the area’s I used it.

The Product comes in 2.5 and 5 litre cans and of course you can have any colour mixed with colour tinting.

The only downside I can see would be it’s price, at over £15 per 5L can more than traditional Dulux Trade Vinyl Matt and the colour mixing prices at around £70 for 5 litres. However, saying that, I feel if the job calls for a tough durable stain resistant paint I would use this product.

For more information see the TradeXpress website or find them on Facebook: TradeXpress UK or Twitter @TradeXpress.

Twitter, a year on

2010 saw www.propertydecorating.co.uk joining Twitter, and now in January 2011 a year on, has it all been worth it?

On January 1st 2010 I signed up to Twitter with no real expectations, I have been tweeting for a year now.
I have made lots of new contacts, from people in the decorating trade such as painters and decorators, as well as companies supplying all sorts of things from wallpaper to tool and sundries, also some famous celebrity types to individual crafts people such as stained glass and hand painted wallpaper and some designers as well.

So a very varied selection of people, I tweet regularly with lots of people and have discovered some real talents that I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend or use myself.

Through my tweeting I met Françoise Murat (@FrancoiseM), an Interior and garden designer, I wrote a guest article for her blog about our wallpaper calculator. You can read the full article here http://www.francoisemurat.com/interior-design/231–wallpaper-amazing-decorative-wall-coverings.html. As Françoise also guest blogs for Sarah Beeny’s website Tepilo (@tepilo) my article was also featured on Tepilos blog, you can see that article here https://www.tepilo.com/blog/2010/05/a-british-approach-to-decoration-wallpapers/.

I also tweeted with Dulux Trade (@DuluxTrade) and through this I wrote a short piece about a horror tale for their TradeXpress newsletter ‘Tales of Horror’ section in December last year. I blogged about this at the time, you can see my blog post here https://www.propertydecorating.co.uk/blog/?p=276 or read the article in the December 2010 TradeXpress newsletter if you can get your hands on one or via their website https://www.duluxtradepaintexpert.co.uk/editorial/adrian-rayfield.

January 2011

This January saw an addition to the blog and website, we have added ‘Tweet’ buttons on each blog post, these can been seen just before the comments section. We have also added these buttons on some pages across the website, such as all the calculator pages and wallpaper symbols page.
If you find a blog article useful or interesting, or think the calculators are a handy tool, please tweet about them. Simply hit the Tweet button, a new window opens with pre-filled text and a link to the page, you can add text if you wish or simply hit the Tweet button. This tweet will then appear in your time line.

So has it all been worth it, definitely, and I shall be continuing to Twitter.

You can keep up with what I am doing simply by following me @propertydecor.

I Tweet about new blog post, any industry news I feel would benefit people and of course any news to do with www.propertydecorating.co.uk.