Products / 6/6/2024

Mapei colour: transparent quality

An unlimited choice of colour shades and products with guaranteed performance

Author

Barbara Viero

Coloured protective and decorative wall coatings, Mapei SpA (Italy)

Mapei offers a wide range of high-performance, low-VOC interior paints, safe for human health and highly sustainable. The DURSILITE line, featuring innovative formulations and BioBlock technology, ensures durable and mold-resistant coatings. Its packaging guarantees clarity and sustainability by using recycled materials.

If we take a close look at the surroundings we live in, the rooms of our homes, the offices and conference rooms at our workplace or public spaces, we realize that, in reality, we spend a good part of our life surrounded by painted surfaces: in general, ceilings and walls account for more than 70% of the surfaces in a room. This is something we do not tend to give much thought to, but it is crucial because we should choose the most suitable paints for interiors.

So… how important is it that surroundings we come into contact with on a daily basis transmit a sense of wellbeing from both an emotional perspective, through colour and appearance, and from a product perspective regarding chemical composition, which must be formulated with the utmost care to safeguard people’s health and the environment?

Paints are all around us on walls and ceilings, furniture, and floorings.

Beautiful outside, good inside

DURSILITE is a historical brand name from the Mapei line of water-based paints, a brand that was already on show on the Mapei stand at the International Reconstruction Trade Fair that the company attended in Milan in June 1946.

With the aim of increasing the company's prestige and presence on the interior paints market, similar to what had already been achieved for Mapei coatings for exteriors and thermal insulation systems, in 2022 we completely updated our range of water-based paints, enhancing it on a quantity level in terms of products and on a quality level from a performance perspective.

Today, the DURSILITE line consists of two products for preparation work (a levelling paste and a coloured undercoat) and five water-based paints, while a further four products are already in the development stage to further enhance the portfolio from a technical and commercial perspective. The range of interior coatings is completed by the ultra-high performance wall enamel paint MAPECOAT ACT, available in a satin or matt finish.

Wellbeing in colour

The water paints formulations have been optimised to reduce their emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOC) to a minimum, achieving the highest class, A+, a guarantee of better air quality for indoor areas and a high level of living comfort.

ColorMap^® colouring pastes, which may be used to reproduce shades from the Mapei Collection or any other colour sample, also have low VOC emissions and are made from highly concentrated non-toxic pigments to reduce their dosage rates in coatings to a minimum while maintaining the same quality.

As per requirement 2.5.13 of CAM (Minimum Environmental Criteria, which are mandatory in Italy for public tenders) for paints and varnishes, DURSILITE water-based paints are completely free of heavy metals such as arsenic, lead and mercury according to test reports issued by accredited external laboratories.

Guaranteeing the healthiness of environments also means preventing or overcoming one of the most commonly occurring situations in environments where there is moisture or limited ventilation: mould.

BioBlock, a technology developed by Mapei, contrasts the deposit and proliferation of mould on surfaces, thanks to special wide-spectrum, long-lasting, biological protection agents.

INspire selection is a colour fan with 96 shades of Mapei coatings adding colour to interiors.

Today’s true luxury: time

Carrying out renovation or maintenance work on our homes always brings about numerous inconveniences and problems: important time taken away from the already limited amount available in our frenetic daily lives.

Opting for a quality product, so highly durable, means not only making an ethical and sustainable choice; it also means extending the life cycle of paint and considerably reducing the frequency of redecorating. The hiding power of paint is also important, and, in specific cases, it means that only one coat needs to be applied, thereby considerably reducing the time required to carry out work and the presence of painters in the home.

A new look, functional and… sustainable!

For the packaging we chose to go for a clean and essential look, with the Mapei flask as the dominating graphic element, a well-known symbol of our brand synonymous with reliability and quality.

All the information about the product is shown clearly: type, area of use, main performance characteristics and the benefits deriving from the use of each product. Certification markings and logos are positioned on the front so that the performance characteristics of the product can be recognised at a glance. Application guidelines for the product are on the back and are easy to understand, thanks to the use of icons.

The QR Code, right next to the name of the product, gives immediate access to the complete technical and marketing documentation available online.

We have also considered the environmental aspect by using recycled packaging, certified by the Institute for the Promotion of Recycled Plastics (IPPR), which authorises us to apply the Plastica Seconda Vita (Second life Plastic) logo on all packaging.