Paints and Interiors

ican Porslin - A superior water based enamel paint.

ican Porslin is one of a new generation of nano paints, that have been emerging on the market in recent years.

Nano paints sound very techy, but it basically means that the paint molecules are smaller than normal, resulting in more paint molecules in your tin! They form a stronger bond with the surface, a tighter bond with itself, and are tougher in nature than standard paints.

ican Porslin is one of these nano technology paints. But it also combines 100% pure acrylics and 100% pure polyurethane, resulting in a paint that is incredibly tough, not only in its nature but also in its formulation.

It also flows really well and behaves much more like an oil based product - you can work it more than acrylic paints and it levels superbly.

ican Porslin comes in a white and clear base as standard and can be tinted into any colour.

Sheen Level - 20 - eggshell

Solvent/Cleaning - Water

Coverage - 6-10m2/l

Drying times - touch dry 2 hours, totally cured 3-4 days.

Recoating time -  12 hours

Case study:

The painting of 18 windows and 6 sets of doors.

The first stage was spot priming with Zinsser B-I-N spray primer, followed by a good first coat of ican Grepp V a multisurface primer undercoat applied with a HVLP sprayer. 

The next 2 coats were ican Porslin which was tinted to Farrow & Ball 'Pointing', sanding between all coats with sponge sanding pads and sheets

The aim was to spray apply all coats, but due to space issues (lack of it!) i decided to hand finish the final coat. For this i hand applied with my trusty  Purdy's, followed by rolling off with a sponge roller, then the final laying off with a Wooster Ultra Pro.This may not sound like the best idea, but i had used Porslin before and i knew that it levels really well with very little effort and with a combination of laying off with a sponge roller and then a really soft synthetic brush, the finish is just as good as the photos below prove.

A severe lack of space and the fact that the windows arrived with the casements on friction stays as opposed to butt hinges, did not help the matter!

2 coats of Primer undercoat were used on the doors which were Meranti (a good hardwood for doors, but it really sucks up the paint), followed by 2 full coats of Porslin

Detail of door with hand painted final coat

ican Porslin finishes beautifully even when hand applied.

'Fors':

• It flows beautifully and levels out to a really even finish with very little work. Unlike the high acrylic content paints, it has a slightly longer open time enabling you to work it a little longer. If you do need to go back over the paint - even up to 30 minutes later to smooth anything out it will not pull and levels back really well.

I know you may think the next 2 'fors' are immaterial, but they do make a difference when you are using the product. 

• It has very little odour - in fact i think the smell is rather nice - after a while the smell of some paints can really get to you, and this is quite the opposite.
• The brushes take about 2 minutes to get clean! A quick few dunks in kettle full of water (not electric before you say anything!) and a bit of a rub through with the fingers and it is all gone! I was really surprised by this and boy does it make a difference after you have been painting for the best part of a day, to clean up in a matter of seconds rather than 10 or so minutes spent at a sink, several changes of water etc etc....!

'Againsts':

• As a water-based paint it does not cover the timber in the same way as the old oil based paints so you do see some grain, but this is the norm with the majority of water-based finishes, so this is not really a downside, more an observation.
• Price. It is an expensive product retailing at £29.62 ex Vat for 1 Litre. This is a lot, and an awful lot of people have said and will say it is not worth spending this for a tin of paint and i can see that. 

Verdict:

Now i know i am probably a little biased as i sell the stuff, but ican Porslin really is lovely paint to use. If diluted by approx 10% it sprays really well. It took me a little while to get the adjustment on my HVLP there, but once i had it left a fantastic finish. With a tiny drop of water, it hand finishes beautifully, and to be perfectly honest, i could have hand painted the windows and doors throughout and i probably would have had the same smooth finish. It levels back perfectly and with a laying off brush, there were few if any visible brush marks. On kitchen unit fronts, i have yet to try this, but i have no doubt you will be able to achieve a really top finish without too much effort.

They are testing it for wear at the moment in Sweden and the results should be back at the end of February, so it will be interesting to see if its performance is as it 'says it is on the tin'! It does come with impeccable credentials so i do not doubt its performance, but as a new product on the market, these things are good to know.

For more information on ican Porslin please contact us on 01986 788993 or visit our website http://www.paintsandinteriors.co.uk/