If you’re browsing through the products on our website, you may have read that certain paint products have good alkali resistance. What does this mean exactly?
No, it’s not just a marketing ploy to make a product look like it’s packed with features. Every phrase and wording in each product page is backed by intensive research during the product’s development. This includes the claim of a product’s alkali resistance, an important characteristic of a paint to be good for concrete surfaces.
What Does It Mean to Have Good Alkali Resistance?
Concrete is an innately alkali material. You can recall alkalinity as a term back in your high school chemistry, with certain chemicals being ‘basic’ or ‘alkaline,’ opposite to chemicals that are acidic. I won’t go into the specific science, but just remember that concrete being alkaline means it’s reactive when interacting with other chemicals.
This includes reacting with paint applied on a concrete surface. For example, oil-based paints (like Quick Drying Enamel) is chemically composed of substances that react with the alkalinity of concrete. When you use these kinds of paints on concrete, the alkali environment causes the oils in the paint to break down. This is known as saponification.
It affects the adherence of the paint, causing it to discolor and peel. If you want your wall coatings to last long, then you shouldn’t be using products that are inherently poor in alkali resistance. Enamel paints are excellent for wood and metal surfaces, but not on concrete.
Paints and Primers with Good Alkali Resistance
Avoiding issues like saponification requires you to select paints that have good alkali resistance. For concrete walls, water-based acrylic paints like Boysen Permacoat Latex and Boysen EcoPrimer will not react with the alkalinity of concrete. Because of that, these water-based paints serve as excellent primers for water-based topcoats (like Boysen Healthy Home and Boysen KNOxOUT), as well as Boysen’s decorative finishes like Boysen DECORe.
For concrete floors, the primer of choice is Boysen Epoxy Primer. While it is also a primer for metal surfaces, it also has good alkali resistance for excellent adhesion on concrete. It doesn’t dry as fast as water-based primers, but it does provide a durable finish meant for painted surfaces subjected to foot traffic.
Preparing Concrete Surfaces Against Alkalinity
Painting with products with really good alkali resistance, Epoxy Primer for example, requires you not to neutralize concrete any longer.
For painting with water-based paints, neutralizing concrete is a crucial step in preparing walls to be painted. If you paint on fresh concrete within 14–28 days of curing, the paint can encounter problems involving salt deposits appearing on the paint film. This is called efflorescence, a paint concern you want to avoid.
You can wait for 28 days for the concrete to fully cure before applying paint, or you can neutralize the surface using Boysen Masonry Neutralizer. Also known as “paglalason ng pader,” you can click on this link to read on the whole process.
Alternatively, you can use a skimcoat to prep fresh concrete for painting. Konstrukt Permaplast High-Performance Acrylic Skimcoat is one of the best skimcoats for concrete, correcting surface imperfections 2 mm to 3 mm in size. Its good alkali resistance minimizes the need to neutralize concrete.
Key Takeaways
Concrete provides rigidity and structure for your home. While you can’t combat the alkali nature of the material, there are products that are compatible with concrete. The right product choice and correct surface preparation are key for a beautiful finish for your home.
If you have questions about the products mentioned, send your inquiries to [email protected].
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