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My house is in need of painting (white). I've had a quote from a firm that propses using something called Pro Perla, an elastic hydrophobic coating applied as a spray. They want four and a half grand! This is based on £25 per sq m. It comes with a 25 year guarantee and is apparently "self cleaning".
I've never heard of it and can't find any independent reiews of it on line though several other firms that offer it. Is anyone familiar with it?
These guys are offering a reduction to £2.9k if we will be a "show home" to help them break in to the area. Sounds like a typical sales tactic though I can't be sure. They are a new firm from the Nottingham area and we are in Warwickshire.
I've had a seperate "normal paint" quote off a local painter for £2.2k.
If your bike house needed painting, what would you do?
I’ve never heard of the product but, as I understand it after a quick glance at the website, the claims they’re making don’t seem unreasonable.
I’d be wanting a look at one of their other “show homes” and maybe getting alternative quotes for the same product from one of the other approved installers.
£2900 to prep and spray a 180m2 house doesn’t strike me as unrealistic but I’d be concerned about overspray.
(Full disclosure: I work for probably the largest commercial decorator in the UK)
I’ll ask our technical guys about it in the morning if I remember
Cheers dude, much appreciated.
I'd want to know what the 25 year guarantee covers and whether it is with the painter, or the manufacturer, and if the former, what happens if he goes bust, and is the guarantee yours, or is it on the house..I.e. What happens to it if you sell up (the house we bought had a window guarantee, but the firm wanted a grand to transfer it into our name...I didn't bother).
My guess is that the guarantee won't be worth the paper it's printed on after a year or two.
Spayings a lot more common in the rest of the world than here. As perchy says if not taped up well it’s messy but have a mate who does it just fine with no problems. Price quotes are not that different so would say it depends on what you can find out about the paint and if strangers get to wander round your house or is it pictures only.
What was the normal paint the other people were going to use?
I'd say there was a lot of marketing here. A paint is a coating except the latter sounds more scientific. Whether you brush or spray often won't affect the performance. Perhaps there's an argument about aesthetic differences but that only really applies to gloss systems. Even then a good coating formulated for brush application would out perform a badly sprayed coating in this regard.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say all paints are elastic as well. I've spent a good part of the last three years studying the mechanical properties of paint and under normal conditions they behave elastically. There would be issues with the substrate before you hit plastic deformation.
Super hydrophobicity is a thing. It works to keep surfaces clean, I've seen the experiments. How well it lasts over 25 year I don't know. As the surface degrades (at a chemical/nano scale) the hydrophobicity decreases. A concern to me is that the BS standard they quote next to the text about hydrophobicity is actually related to water permeability unless there is a part in there not covered in the abstract (which I can't get at home).
My gut feel is that it is nothing special. There's a very heavy marketing emphasis that makes it appear superficially to be better than anything else. Without seeing direct comparison against another product it's really hard to understand how much better it is. The price up and reduce down strategy also seems a bit dubious and rings alarm bells.
I'd ask them about their guarantee as well. What exactly does it cover - I've had endless fun with people who throw this into specification. It's guaranteed for 25 years, that's an insurance policy not proof that the product will last. If it fails what happens - is it made good, do you get some money, or do they redo the job. Who underwrites it? If it fails in 20 years will the company even exist?
Me personally, I'd really want to know what the normal paint is and how much it differs. I'd also be considering the people doing the application. The vast majority of coatings failures I've seen have been to errors in application and surface preparation. It's never the paint unless it is obvious - out of date stock or wrong specification for environment.
(I formulate paints for a living, this is all my own opinion not professional advice!)
That’s a good answer.
Also my mate only sprays new builds as houses full of stuff are a right pain, says Anthony over morning brews.
Am I right in thinking this is an external paint process you are talking of ?
As said above , find out who the guarantee is with, and how long the company has been going. Sounds like the usual white gold sales patter to me. What corners are they going to cut after knocking £1600 off the price ?
Will we be seeing them on the next episode of Watchdog ? 😉
Am I right in thinking this is an external paint process you are talking of ?
Yes
Painting the render?
Over here we have "stucco" homes and I'd always prefer an 'elastomeric architectural coating' for extended performance.
It is indeed a little more difficult to apply than water based exterior paint but the prep is the same.
The paint might stay adhered for 25 years, but I doubt it's color/UV stable or self cleaning for that long and the warranty is probably only worth the paper its written on past 5 years.