Thread: What is latex paint?

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Hi all, I'm a newbie to this site, but not halloween props!

I apologise for the length of this post!

Living in England means halloween is getting bigger each year, but nothing like it is across the pond in the States!

I have got so much information, so many tips & great ideas so far - boy, you people are so creative & inventive (ok, I think some are just plain nuts but I think if you ask my wife she'd say something including the words "Pot, kettle & black!").

In the past I've bought many halloween props and have been to the States a few times around September/October and am like a kid in a candy shop with all the wonderful things you can buy. Let's just say that my wife, in fact family, dread the flight home - that is, if we can get all the baggage in the hire car & get to the airport in time.................................

Anyway, being a sort of creative person too I thought I'd start making some props. I've done a few in recent years (usual things like gravestones, spiders etc.) but thought I'd branch out this year.

Having done loads of research on all sorts of things I have a few questions that I hope somebody can explain for me?

Being in the UK, we don't always have the same things as you guys over there - well, we probably do, but they are called something different to what you know them as.

The first one that I simply can't seem to get to the bottom of is "Latex paint".

Can somebody explain exactly what this is?

We have paint over here called "emulsion", which is usually for decorating inside (walls mostly) & is a water based paint - you wash your brushes in water.

We also have "gloss", "satin" & "Matt" paint which is usually used on doors, window frames, door frames etc., and can be used both indoors & outdoors. This paint can be (I believe) oil based (where you need to clean your brushes with "white spirit" - this may be "turpentine" over there?), or water based (where you clean your brushes with water & maybe a little dish soap).

We also have dedicated exterior paints, based on the above paragraph, as well as others like masonry paint which you paint on the walls outside to enhance the appearance and, I think, to protect/weather proof it.

The problem I have is that I don't know what the equivalent is over here to "latex" paint.

Can anybody give me a clue? Maybe somebody could list, or post a picture of, the typical make up of latex paint over there i.e., what's actually in it?

That way I can make a comparison with the tins we have over here.

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer!

Welcome to the forum! I don't know anything about the paints in England, but latex paint is the standard indoor water-based paint in the US. It's fairly thick and has to be stirred before using. When dry, it's slightly flexible and rubbery. That way, it doesn't crack on your walls when it dries out or when the walls settle a little. Latex paint comes in matte, satin, gloss, and semi-gloss also.

I'm also in the uk. I was just in wickes the other day :L , looking for "latex paint" but all i found is exactly as you said, emulsions and masonry paint.

And both our names are phil (if thats your real name), well that is odd, where are you located in the uk.

Like fravak said it is a water base paint for painting the inside walls in your house, the other option you have is to go to the craft store and buy the acrylic paint that you use on craft projects. there are all kinds of colors. Your local home fix it store should have this paint though. you can have them mix any color you desire or just use the base coat of a white shade to do your stones. If you use an exterior paint make sure it is water based that way it will not eat the styro foam on the tomb stone.

In the US latex paint seems to have become a general term for most water-based paint made with a synthetic binder (latex), such as acrylic, vinyl acetate copolymer, or styrene acrylic. Wickes (UK) online catalog does list vinyl as two sheens on their emulsion guide for use in general household areas. If I had to make an educated guess I'd say that their chalky flat matt is equivalent to what we commonly refer to as standard interior latex paint.

"latex" & emulsion paints are pretty much the same - water based acrylics, just that US uses the house hold term "latex" because of the rubbery properties & Europe the more correct "emulsion" name for water based acrylics.
Oil based are thinner or "white spirits" (turpentine) as the Europeans call it, again same thing.
Urethane is an oil based also used mostly in automotive industry now being replaced with environment friendly water based & water born paints ( water based acrylic within a "bubble" of oil based carrier........not as environmently friendly)

Phil (or anyone else who knows the answer),

This is just pure curiosity, but when you say "white spirits", are you referring to oil based paints or the paint thinner used to clean off oil paints? I think that's kinda funny. Just because when I think of "white spirits" I think of some kind of light colored liquor like vodka or something...

And then I imagine this whole scene where Guy #1 asks Guy #2 what's in the bottle... Guy #2 responses "White Spirits"... and then Guy #1 says "White Spirits? I love Vodka!" ... and then chugs the thing... and then promptly vomits and dies a very dramatic and over-exaggerated death...

... and yeah, I'm gonna stop typing now...

Originally Posted by fravak

Welcome to the forum! I don't know anything about the paints in England, but latex paint is the standard indoor water-based paint in the US. It's fairly thick and has to be stirred before using. When dry, it's slightly flexible and rubbery. That way, it doesn't crack on your walls when it dries out or when the walls settle a little. Latex paint comes in matte, satin, gloss, and semi-gloss also.

Thanks for the reply.

I was following you until the last part - I thought our interior paint for walls ("Emulsion") only came in matt or satin sheen - but you know that's probably because I've never wanted ultra shiny walls! I remember years ago I bought some matt paint to decorate downstairs and once finished it looked awesome - until our then (very young) kids got their sticky hands all over it!

But as the paint is washable it didn't matter - only problem being that where we scrubbed the marks off, the paint partly came off too so you could see through in places!

That's where I first learned that going up to a satin sheen made washing marks off much easier - something to do with the make up of the paint.

So I'll have a look around to see if I can find some gloss.

Originally Posted by phil121

And both our names are phil (if thats your real name), well that is odd, where are you located in the uk.

Hi Phil (great name!),

Yes, that surprisingly is my name too!

I'm in Sussex, near Gatwick.

It's funny having these different names for things around the world - I was watching Big Brother the other night and the Aussie contestant referred to clingfilm as "Grabwrap" - wonder what it's known as over in the US?