Valspar Trade Vinyl Matt Review

I was recently asked to review the reformulated Valspar Trade Vinyl Matt for the Decorators’ Forum UK. I’m a self-employed decorator with 15 years’ experience, so you won’t be surprised to hear that I’ve used a fair bit of vinyl matt in my time – I was interested to see how the new Valspar Trade product would measure up to the brands I usually use, because I rarely use Valspar, and certainly hadn’t tried the new Trade formula before. I hope you find my review helpful.

For those who don’t know, Valspar is an American-owned brand currently available exclusively through B&Q in the UK. As someone who doesn’t use the brand often, it’s a bit confusing to look at in store – there’s regular Valspar, Valspar Express Coat, Valspar Simplicity, Valspar Premium, and Valspar Trade. Some of these are targeted more towards the retail consumer than the professional decorator, but if you don’t know what you’re looking for, there’s a lot to get your head around!

My comments and thoughts in this review are based purely on the Valspar Trade product, and I’m writing this after I used their new Vinyl Matt for the first couple of times, so it’s really only my initial impressions.

I bought myself a tin of Pure Brilliant White to give it a try. I had a ceiling to paint in the bedroom of a 1980’s house.

Obviously, I wasn’t going to paint half the ceiling with this, and half with my usual brand. It would have made for a great review, but not a happy customer! My normal ceiling paint is Johnstone’s Covaplus – it never gives me any problems, always gives a decent result, and doesn’t cost the earth. For large or light-critical ceilings, I prefer Tikkurila AR2, but most jobs I use Covaplus. So that’s what I’ll be comparing it with as I use the Valspar product and write this review. And just for comparison, 10L of Valspar Trade Vinyl Matt is £44 (inc. VAT), compared with under £40 for Covaplus. So it’s not cheap, although not quite as dear as AR2.

My Valspar Trade Vinyl Matt Review

So, how does the product perform in use? My first impression on pouring it out the tin was that it seemed a little bit thicker than I was used to – not ridiculously thick, but it just gave me the impression that it had an almost “sticky” texture to it, which did concern me a bit. I wondered if it maybe had more vinyl, more plasticiser in it than my usual brand, which might result in less of a flat matt finish. I’m not saying that that is the case, just that that was my initial concern. It just didn’t look and feel quite like the vinyl matts I’m used to. My second impression was “Wow, that is seriously white”! It was like a toothpaste commercial from the 1990’s!

The product can be applied by brush, roller or spray, and in temperatures as low as 2 degrees Celsius – not normally an issue for me, as most of my work is domestic, in occupied houses. They say it’s touch-dry in one hour, and can be recoated in 2-4 hours. I didn’t need to apply a mist-coat on this job as the ceiling was already painted, but interestingly Valspar say on the tin that “you can dilute this paint with water, however, when you dilute the formula you dilute the quality. Therefore, we cannot guarantee the claims we make on pack if the formula is diluted with water”.

So use it straight from the tin, or you’re on your own!  Duly warned, I used it straight from the tin! In use, I still had that nagging doubt at the back of my mind that it was going to feel sticky and not be as easy to apply as my normal brand, based purely on its appearance when being poured out of the tin, but I needn’t have worried.

I cut in around the edges of the ceiling and then rolled it, and the Valspar product was absolutely fine in application. I left it for a couple of hours while I got on with another part of the job, came back to find it had dried nicely, and applied a second coat. Once it was dry, it did give a nice flat matt finish, nice and even with no roller marks, so overall I was happy with the result. I’ve now used it on a further ceiling since, with similar results.

I guess in conclusion I would say that Valspar Trade Vinyl Matt is a decent product – neither the best nor the worst that I’ve used. And in a way that’s what surprised me; because my first impression was that it looked different to what I was expecting, I was expecting it to perform differently too, either in a positive or negative way, and in the end, it was neither, just a good vinyl matt.

It would be interesting to see how it performs on a larger ceiling where the lighting is more critical (the two ceilings I used it on were quite small and there wasn’t a huge amount of natural light), and also to try it out in a colour when that option becomes available. But for now, my first impression was that it’s decent, but not so good that I’d drive past my normal stockist to get it, and pay more for it than my normal brand.

Review Summary

FAQs

Is vinyl matt wipeable?

You can generally have a quick wipe over vinyl matt without damaging the paint, but it isn’t durable enough to give a proper clean. If you’re decorating in a high-traffic area, kitchen, or bathroom, then you might use durable matt instead.

Can you water down vinyl matt paint?

Most trade paints come condensed, which includes vinyl matt products. You should dilute it to help with flow or to prime bare plaster, but make sure you don’t dilute it too much, or you’ll need to apply an additional coat for it to cover.

Can you use vinyl matt on ceilings?

A lot of vinyl matt paints are great for ceilings. The low-sheen finish is perfect and very desirable. If you have a large, open plan, or light critical ceiling to paint, then you may want to consider a specialist ceiling paint instead.

Can you mix vinyl matt and matt emulsion?

Vinyl matt and matt emulsion products have a similar make up. The vinyl matt contains more polymer binder (usually polyvinyl, hence the name “vinyl”). You shouldn’t have any problems mixing the two together.

Does Dulux own Valspar

No, Valspar is manufactured by Sherwin Williams, who are an American brand. Dulux is owned by AkzoNobel, who are Dutch.