The “new paint” smell means bad news for our air quality, but did you know that some paint off-gasses for years after that smell has gone away? The good news is that paint options are on the market today designed to be as healthy as possible. AFM Safecoat’s Zero-VOC Interior Paint is popular for homes and businesses with chemically sensitive inhabitants.
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By Rise
Feb 8, 2025 · 3 min read
AFM Safecoat Zero-VOC Interior paint is a premium acrylic paint designed to be low odor and better for indoor air quality than traditional paint options.
Founded in 1983, AFM grew out of its relationship with the medical industry, developing products that wouldn't irritate or be a problem for people with allergies or chemical sensitivities. Even today, doctors will prescribe AFM paints to patients who require the best indoor air quality for their health.
No. AFM Safecoat's Interior Zero-VOC paint has a low odor compared to its low-VOC counterparts. It's not a completely odorless paint, however, since that can be challenging to achieve for acrylic paint. For completely odorless options, consider mineral paint like lime paint.
A paint’s odor is only one indicator of its presence in the air or its danger.
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AFM Safecoat goes beyond reducing VOCs in their formulation. “Zero VOC” isn’t very meaningful since many toxic ingredients aren’t technically VOCs (ammonia and acetone, for example). HAPs, or “hazardous air pollutants,” are another category of dangerous ingredients that are only now making it to the front label “marketing speak” of paints. AFM boasts no HAPs on their SDS sheet.
AFM Safecoat has formulated its products to be as safe as possible for as many people as possible and is very popular among customers with sensitivities. They have earned a positive reputation since their product development was done alongside environmental physicians in the 1980s.
Unlike some leading brands, this focus on human health means their products don’t contain chemicals exempt from lists of VOCs and HAPs or volumes under the threshold for disclosure on a safety data sheet.
AFM Safecoat Zero-VOC Interior Paint dries to the touch quite quickly, but give it a full seven days to cure under normal conditions and up to 14 days in warm and humid conditions. You should wait roughly 24 hours between coats of paint.
One gallon of AFM Safecoat Zero-VOC Interior Paint covers 300-400 sq/ft, depending on how porous the surface is. Consider using a high-quality primer to get even more mileage out of your paint.
AFM Safecoat Zero-VOC Interior paint is available in 4 sheens: flat, egg-shell, pearl, and semi-gloss. One of the things that set AFM Zero-VOC Interior Paint apart from other zero-VOC and no-HAP paints is that it's tintable to hundreds of colors, so you’re only limited by your imagination.
At Rise, we carefully vet the products available on our store. AFM’s Zero-VOC Interior Paint is on the Rise store shelves because it’s a healthy paint that performs as well as comparable products in terms of surface coverage. It’s priced as a premium product, but we promise it’s worth the investment.
If you’re serious about your home’s health, dive into the spec sheets of this product at shop.buildwithrise.com, and it will ship to your front door with free carbon-neutral shipping.
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