Hey all,

So I'm repainting the house I just purchased. It is in dire need of a paint job. The only question is whether to use regular paint or TexCote CoolWall stuff.

I've talked to a couple of contractors. TexCote says its stuff lasts several decades, and if that's true, I think it might be worth the extra cost. A couple of painters I've talked to, however, have said that they have to repaint the TexCote often and that it doesn't really last.

What are your experiences? Does TexCote last and is it worth the price? Or should I just do regular paint?

I plan to live in this house for many years so I don't mind investing in a better product if it really is better.

MyParadox

 

I don't have any experience with TexCote

What type of substrate would you intend to put it on?

I'm skeptical of any paint type coating that claims to insulate or otherwise lower your heating/cooling bill...... other than the fact that dark colors will absorb more heat than light colors. I would also be leery of a texture coating. If it ever looses it's bond with the substrate, it might be difficult to repaint/texture that area so it won't show.

Top of the line paints can last for a long time [may need periodical cleaning to keep it looking nice] but a lot depends on the substrate, prep work, insulation and vapor barrier along with the environment it's subjected too.

Hopefully someone else will respond that has used the coating.

 

I went through this whole process of deciding whether or not I should paint or apply a permanent coating. There were at least a half of a dozen different coating companies out there at that time and I had to research each and every one of them before I chose to go with a coating.

What I can tell you is this:
If there are numerous complaints on a certain company - DO NOT use them!
Look for a contractor that has been in business for a while in your area and didnt just roll into town.
Check their BBB records. These records do not lie and are VERY important.
Research the product! Where does it come from? Did it have another name?

I found a few companies and/or products that simply came from nowhere and they are not part of this list because I felt that they were fly-by-nighters!

Here is the list of coatings that I felt were worth researching further. (And, yes I did choose one!)

Good Luck!

 

I dont know this brand but I would check on what its made of.
I had good results with latex paints indoors. The qualities seemed to vary on the percentage that the paint contained latex, with the most expensive ones being 100% latex.
External surface paints seemed to be mostly acrylic, with the most expensive ones being 100% acrylic. Recently I used a modified acrylic-silicon paint with very good results.
I am not sure how the energy-saving paints function exactly Heat insulation is usually several cm thick. They might provide some results in keeping temperature difference from inside and out but I am not sure if its noticable .
Its also very important for the results to use the paint properly, dilute it with the correct amount of water, mix well, the preparation work and apply a coat of primer if there is anything except paint on the surface you are painting (plaster, mortar etc).

 

My Paradox:

I would just paint, and the reason for this is that Tex-Cote isn't the only company offering "insulating paints". There's Hytech Sales and Insuladd, too.


Tex-cote claims that the special pigments in their heat reflecting paint can save over 20 percent in air conditioning costs.

Now, at a time of escalating dependance on foreign oil and increasing concern about the environment, if there was a snowflake's chance in he11 of a product reducing heating or cooling costs by 20 %, both your government and mine would be offering incentives for people to paint their homes with Tex-cote. Also, why wouldn't Al Gore be promoting Tex-cote to reduce carbon emissions?

If Tex-cote did provide any real potential of energy savings, then paint companies like Sherwin William and Benny Moore would be offering their own lines of insulating exterior paints too.

I would phone Tex-cote's 1-800-454-0340 customer service phone number and ask where you can download a copy of that study conducted by the U. S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory which showed that TEX•COTE® COOLWALL® coatings can reduce a home’s cooling costs by as much as 21.9%*!

Here's how the world of independant laboratory testing works: If a company wants to sell a product, the go to an "independant test lab" to test their product. The director of the lab isn't stupid. He knows that he's not going to get any more of Tex-cote's business if his results don't show that Tex-cote saves heating or cooling costs. So, as with any statistical data, there is a norm of values, and there are anomolies. The indepenant testing lab will chose the anomoly as being representative of the norm, the dismiss most of the results (the norms) as all being anomolies. In this case, most likely the US Department of Energy did get an anomoly showing a huge energy savings. But, if they considered that to be representative of the norm, they'd have been on the phone to Al Gore in the middle of the night to tell him about the great potential of this stuff.

And, if Tex-cote DOESN'T have a link anywhere on their web site to download that supposedly scientific study, then I wouldn't waste any more time on them. If their study was valid, and showed that the MAJORITY of the test results provided significant energy changes, then only an idiot would't make this information readily available to potential customers.

PS:
I found the web page on Tex-cote's web page:
Textured Coatings of America, Inc.
I didn't read anything carefully, but these supposed scientific studies showed energy savings of from 4.2 percent to 21.9 percent. I'd be skeptical that what they've done is compared the energy saving of using different COLOURS of paint. Read them for yourself with a skeptical perspective and see if anything changes your mind.

 

In my honest opinion the heat reflection is there to keep the surface your walls cooler and to reflect the UV rays which cause heat. When you leave plastic out in the sun for a long period of time it becomes brittle. This is damage done to the integrity of the plastic from UV rays. If the material reflects these UV rays then a hypothesis is that the material would last longer and your color would not fade as quickly. I'm personally doing research on the product and trying to decide if I would like to coat my house in it. The 20% reduction stated above may have been from a house that did not have insulation within the walls. This figure is more than likely a marketing tool that they use to sell the product. Heat transference between exterior walls and the inside air temperature is not all that substantial. The outside air temperature has much more effect on the temperature of your house. It may help minimally, but in reality if your exterior walls have insulation most of that heat will be normalized within the insulation. I personally think after doing 2 hours of research that the heat reflection is more for the product longevity than it is for insulation of your house. That said I'm leaning towards getting the product as it comes with a lifetime warranty from the company I'm dealing with. I do highly suggest that if you do have a company install this product check upon their credentials through the Contractor's State Licence Board and any other services that apply such as the BBB.