Sherwin
Williams DURATION PAINT and Mildew Problems
by Joe Mehaffey
Updated 6/26/2008
I painted a home in about 1998 with
Duration paint and have been extremely pleased. As of 2005, there
is no evidence of mildew or molds on the paint surfaces anywhere.
In 2000 and 2001 I built a guest house, pool house and a 20x40ft
shade pergola within 100 feet of the main house. Within 2 years,
the shady sides of all three of these new structures were covered with
black mold on the surface of the Duration paint. In 2004, the
local paint store told me to pressure wash it with bleach and then they
gave me some spray on mildew treatment that was supposed to fix the
problem. In the summer of 2005, the mold was back as bad as
before on all the treated surfaces.
I spoke with Sherwin Williams "Help
Line" who basically told me "Mold happens, live with it", and "No paint
is immune to mold". This is a nice pitch, but it fails to explain
what I believed MUST have been a change in formulation of Duration
between 1998 and 2001. Further research disclosed that the EPA
caused paint manufacturers to change their formulations in that time
interval and the new formulation (of Duration at least) are now much
more prone to mildew growth.
It does not help to have paint
guaranteed to last 25 years if it turns black with mildew in a couple
of years! Sherwin Williams offered to provide free paint to renew
the problem buildings but only offered $200 of the $2200 labor cost.
This on a paint job on three structures less than 2 years old!
This strikes me as a very poor warranty response on a
manufacturer's premium product.
I went ahead and took the replacement
Duration paint and added TWO tubes of M1 mildewcide to the gallon of
paint. Hopefully, this will give the Duration paint what it takes
to go for a longer duration than 2 years! Sherwin Williams now
tells me that they are aware of the problem and that the mildew problem
has shown up only in the Southeast USA and in coastal areas elsewhere.
They also say they are working on designing an improved
formulation of Duration paint that will not have this problem.
Meanwhile, I recommend you consider
adding a couple of tubes of M1 mildew preventer to each gallon of
Duration paint toward preventing early discoloration of Duration by
Mildew if you happen to be in a mildew prone area of the country.
If anyone knows of a high quality and long lasting house paint
that also has superior mildew resistance, please let me know.
UPDATE1:
The White Duration Paint installed in 2005 has gone now for 18 months
with no signs of mildew. I tried the same paint with two
tubes of M1 mildew preventer on some 10year
old unpainted "treated lumber" fence in 2004. The mildew did not
appear by now, but the paint has not stuck to the fence and I am now
having it sandblasted, pressure washed, scraped and repainted with
conventional paint. Personally, I will not be using any more
Duration Paint.. Too many problems.
UPDATE2:
My son painted his home in 2003 with some Grey Duration paint. By
2005, the grey paint that was exposed to the sun had become "seriously
pink". The part in the shade had not changed color. Sherwin
Williams gave him Duration paint (grey) to repaint the affected areas
in the Spring of 2005 along with paying half the cost of reapplication.
Those areas are again showing a "pink tint" after about 18
months. Seems like Sherwin Williams has some serious
re-formulation to do on their Duration Paint.
UPDATE3
I
have renamed the SW Duration paint product SHORT DURATION paint.
The Duration Paint I used BEFORE year 2000 has performed
well indeed and is still in excellent condition. But all of the
Duration paint I have used since the formula change has performed
poorly in one way or another. This year, I am repainting (for the
third time in 8 years) the 25x40ft louvered pergola at the rear of my
home as well as several smaller project previously coated with
Duration. The duration paint on the pergola has failed both by
peeling off (on the top of the pergola exposed to the direct sunlight)
and it had mildew on the areas NOT exposed to the sun. All in
all, a disgraceful failure in 4 years for what is supposed to be
a Sherwin Williams premium paint product.
I started using a
Benjamin Moore "best grade" product in 2005 and (so far) it is holding
up fine. I am repainting the pergola with an Olympic Oil based
paint that is showing promise on some outbuilding painting done in
2006. Both of these products (so far) are not showing any
evidence of mildew or other problems, but it is really too soon to give
them a blessing.
Return to Joe and Jack's GPS
INFORMATION WEBSITE