We are working on an animal shelter and have received "paint" cut sheets for some unusual products. We have some unusual components in the building because the dog kennels are outside. We're really not sure what categories these products go in so we aren't sure of the VOC limits.
Everything is from Carboline
Carbothane 134 high gloss high solids topcoart (288 VOC)(appears to be for exterior metals, pipes and concrete requiring protection from the weather)
Carbozinc 621zinc primer (336 VOC) for touch up of galvanized portions of metal
Sanitile 555 water based epoxy (555 VOC) it's used as an architectural top coat. I can't find epoxies anywhere in the SCAQMD list.
Carbomastic 15 Parts A &B is an epoxy for industrial uses
Thank you for your help
Mara Baum
Partner, Architecture & SustainabilityDIALOG
674 thumbs up
August 5, 2010 - 4:49 pm
I don't think there's ever a project where you don't have to take some educated guesses about products not directly listed in the various standards. Here's my take, but I would like to see how others interpret them.
The Carbothane and Carbozinc are probably anti-corrosive paints with a limit of 250 g/L. However, if the Carbothane (or any other product) is being applied outdoors, you don't have to track it for LEED.
I would categorize the Sanitile based on its use. If it's paint for walls or ceilings then it's addressed under GS-11, so would have a limit of 150 g/L. Otherwise, I'd take a look at what you're using it for and try to find the closest match.
The Carbomastic is probably some type of Industrial Maintenance Coating, so has a limit of 250.
As a side note, I frequently specify metal coatings that are higher than the VOC limits, and use a budget calculation method -- typically there is relatively little used, and the VOCs can all be balanced out with one low-VOC interior paint that you use a lot of. Many of my peers don't think that the lower VOC coatings for metals are as high performing, and performance is the number one criteria for these products.
Reference IEQc4.2 for more on this.
Karen Joslin
principalJoslin Consulting
216 thumbs up
September 1, 2010 - 3:51 pm
If the coatings are going on kennels that are outside, they would have no low-emitting requirement.
Mara Baum
Partner, Architecture & SustainabilityDIALOG
674 thumbs up
September 8, 2010 - 11:48 am
That's right -- thanks Karen. I missed the part about this being outside. (These are products that are also used inside in some circumstances, and this is a real issue on some projects.)
Rick Ferrara
AIA, LEED BD+CGensler
118 thumbs up
September 22, 2010 - 10:55 pm
We just went through this on a very large project where we have an adhesive that's being used to create the weather barrier of the building. The GC submitted a non-low VOC adhesive, and informed us that if we wanted low VOC (which he said was not required for LEED) it was available for $40,000 more. Upon careful review of the credit, low VOC materials are ONLY considered on the interior of the building AFTER the building has been made weather tight. So, as odd as it seems, the adhesives that create that tightness do not have to achieve the VOC ratings.
The point here is that we'd never had to specifically identify "outside"... but it's in the manual, if you read it correctly.