Outdoor paint has a reputation for being the most durable pigment on the market. It is designed to resist weathering damage, UV radiation and abrasive. Considering this, many home owners assume that the durability of exterior paint makes it superior to indoor paint for interior use. However, is there any truth to this statement?
Despite the heavy duty nature of exterior paint, it is not well suited for use indoors. It requires sunlight and heat to properly cure. Exterior paint also contains mildew preventing compounds which can exacerbate breathing problems and allergies. The presence of Volatile Organic Compounds, or VOCs, also poses a risk due to off gassing.
Such dangerous compound are necessary to give exterior paint its durability. Off gassing outdoors allows the paint to be safe to use around humans. Using exterior paint indoors can even be deadly, particularly for young children, pets and individuals with breathing problems. We understand the risks of accidentally using it, so we have outlined some reasons why you should avoid it below.
Can You Use Exterior Paint on the Interior of Your House?
If you have some exterior paint left over after your home renovation project, you may be tempted to use it for remaining indoor purposes. After all, you wouldn’t want good paint to go to waste. However, most experts advise against doing so. Despite all its advantages, exterior paint hasn’t been formulated for use indoors.
The risks associated with it are abundant. Its durability is meant to cater more to weather wearing than the scuffing and scratching that occurs indoors. If you scrape chairs or tables against your walls, they’d get unsightly blemishes that wouldn’t appear if you had used indoor paint instead.
That said, certain qualities of exterior paint can make it a tantalizing option for indoor paintjobs. It seems to dry much faster, which means the project might take less time to complete. A closer look would reveal that this notion does not hold water.
Exterior paint requires sunlight and outdoor air to aid its rapid drying. Such conditions just aren’t present indoors. Hence, though the fast drying angle may seem appealing, it fails to manifest in interior home conditions.
Many DIY painters justify using exterior paints indoors by pointing to their affordability. While we agree that they are cheaper alternatives, their lack of indoor viability means that all that money would just go to waste.
The emission of VOCs is also something we feel like people should recognize. Volatile organic compounds improve mold resistance and prevent damage from dust particles in the air. This comes at a heavy cost, though. You may find yourself feeling dizzy from the paint fumes. Indoor paints don’t give off such disorienting gases, which explains why they are recommended for your interior decorating.
6 Reasons Why You Can’t Use Exterior Paint for the Interior
- Health risks
We would be remiss if we didn’t address the elephant in the room, namely the high proportion of VOC’s present in exterior paints. These usually aren’t issue if the paint is used properly. After all, there is no shortage of fresh air in outdoor environments. Any VOC’s that are off gassed will be blown away by the wind, thereby making it safe to use.
However, this doesn’t apply to indoor spaces. You likely use air conditioners that recirculate the air. That can leave a toxic amount of VOCs in the air you breathe. They can cause coughing fits, lung lesions, breathing problems and many more health issues. Children with developing lungs and smaller pets are so susceptible that using exterior paint inside your home could potentially be lethal for them.
Some might wonder why the paints use chemicals that pose such a health hazard. Well, you wouldn’t be able to get such long lasting coats if they weren’t added to the formula! That’s why exterior paints have a disclaimer on the can advising against indoor use.
Always pay attention to the labels, because they can save you a sudden trip to the emergency room. If you’re thinking you can let the paint dry while you go off on a trip, think again. The VOCs are emitted while the paint cures as well, and that can take fifteen to twenty days at a bare minimum.
- Lack of color options
Let’s face it, we’re way less discerning about the colors we use on the exterior walls of our homes than on the inside. You generally don’t spend much time looking at your outer walls anyway. Inner walls, on the other hands, are an unavoidable visual element.
That makes it more important to pick the right colors, especially if you’re trying to to some interior decorating and want all of the hues to go with each other.
While exterior paints definitely offer some pigmentation variance, they aren’t as pleasant to the eye as indoor paints. They lack the glossy or smooth finish that you’d be looking for, and there aren’t a lot of color options to begin with.
This also makes it a bad idea to finish an indoor paintjob with outdoor paint. The color might look the same initially, but it can change a lot as it dries. That can result in an uneven color palette that would be unsightly to say the least.
From both a textural and visual point of view, exterior paints just don’t cut it. It’s best to use something specially made for interiors so that you get a consistent coating that will retain its hue over time.
- Slower drying
One of the foremost qualities of exterior paint is that it is quick to dry. If you’re looking to cut some corners by using paint that ostensibly dries faster, it stands to reason that you’d want to give external paints a try. Your logic is sound, but you are still quite misguided because these paints are not automatically going to dry fast purely due to their formula.
Rather, the speedy drying comes from how it reacts to wind and sunshine. You need the elements to get the paint dry as fast as possible. Using it indoors eliminates this advantage.
Ironically, you may just need to wait even longer because the paint isn’t getting what it needs to dry properly in an indoor space! In fact, humidity from the kitchen or the bathroom can cause uneven drying, and potentially delay it by a few extra hours.
DIY-ers dead set on using exterior paint can use strategically placed fans and open windows to help it dry faster. That has the added advantage of eliminating the odors and fumes, although as we have mentioned before it will be weeks before the VOCs dissipate entirely. You might as well use a paint designed for enclosed and indoor environments, because using the alternative comes with a whole host of added steps.
- Lacks durability
Many of you might be scratching your heads at this. You might be asking, isn’t exterior paint meant to be more durable? After all, it’s supposed to stay intact in whether it’s raining or hot out, so logically it should be more resistant to damage than indoor counterparts, right? Wrong! You see, there isn’t just one type of damage that can happen to a coat of paint.
Outdoors, the types of damage that can be caused are quite different. Since there is no chance of excess heat or rainfall indoors, interior paints are designed to be resistant to a different set of factors. Exterior paint is great at fending off elements that can destroy interior paints, but try scraping something against it and you will see where its weaknesses lie.
Scrape and scuff damage is impossible to prevent, particularly when you have kids running around. If you work in an at home office, your chair might rub up against the paint whenever you turn it to get up. Indoor paint won’t suffer much of an impact, but exterior paint will get scratched in no time.
- Property damage
Painting your walls is about a lot more than just making them look good. Many prefer the look of an unfinished wall, and if you believe the same you can skip this process entirely! If you’re planning to sell your home at some point, though, you may need to apply a coat of paint. Buyers may be unwilling to pay top dollar for an unpainted home, and damaged can be just as detrimental to property values.
A major risk of using exterior paint inside of your house is that it could drag your home’s resale value down by a fair bit. Scuffmarks along the walls won’t be viewed positively, and buyers might ask you to offer them a better price since they’d have to foot the bill for a new paintjob.
- Harder to clean
It’s always important to consider practical factors like cleaning when choosing what paint to use. Exterior paint is great at resisting a build up of dirt, but it also doesn’t need to be as clean as interior paint. Soap and water are great for indoor pigments, but they can result in peeling if applied to outdoor paint.
If you want to make your chores less of a burden, select a paint type that lets you clean it easily without fear of stripping it away. Indoor paint just so happens to fit that requirement!
How Do You Fix If You’ve Already Used Exterior Paint Inside?
Learning about the dangers of using exterior paints inside is bound to stress you out. If you’ve already used it, chances are that you’re considering scraping it off. We’d suggest avoiding such a drastic measure. You can do a lot to improve the safety of exterior paint, which can save you the labor of starting all over again.
Since the primary danger here involves off gassing of VOC’s, try wearing a mask while it dries. That will filter out some toxic compounds and protect you from their ill effects. You could also open opposing windows to create a cross breeze. That will channel the fumes out of your home. Pairing this with the face masks can largely mitigate the health impacts of exterior paint fumes.
Once the paint has dried, you can add an extra layer of loose interior paint to further reduce its dangers. Primer can also come in handy here. It will seal the exterior paint in and prevent any off gassing from occurring.
We’d also like to mention that outdoor paint isn’t always a bad choice for indoor spaces. Some indoor areas such as garages and storage sheds are often open to the fresh air. Using exterior paints in such rooms is far less of a risk, so you can rest easy if that’s the case.
Now, it bears noting that all these methods are stopgap solutions. Exterior paints can emit noxious fumes well after they have dried. They can take up to two weeks to cure, and a small amount of VOC will leak throughout this period.
If you can’t afford the health risks, consider applying paint stripper. That can make it easier to remove. It also reduces the mess caused by chipping, and you won’t have to worry about damaging the underlying wall either.
Verdict
Painting can seem like a mundane task, but there is a lot that can go wrong if you don’t know much about it. Many who use exterior paint to save a buck face significant health consequences. Now that you understand why exterior paint is meant for the outdoors, you will be better equipped to use it as it was intended.