Radiant Barrier Paint

LESLIE: Omar in New Mexico, you’ve got The Money Pit. How can we help you today?

OMAR: I’m trying to insulate a huge warehouse and I ran across some – they’re kind of like insulating paints. I saw one online, which I think insulates by – are kind of like those little, tiny bubbles that you mix into your paint. And then I saw some that is like a white, thick latex paint that I guess is supposed to reflect the sun’s rays and not allow your building to get so hot.

TOM: Yeah, I think you’re close. It’s not that you’re adding insulation to it; the additive is a radiant barrier.

Correct, Leslie?

LESLIE: Yeah. It makes the paint become a radiant barrier and what’s happening is you can use it on the inside and the – or the outside of whatever structure. And it works to reflect the heat away if it’s outside and if it’s on the inside, it sort of keeps in the heat or sort of keeps in the cool; it maintains that temperature.

Now, there’s one product that I’m familiar with and it’s called Insuladd and that’s an additive that does act as a radiant barrier. And once it’s on the walls, whether it’s interior or exterior, you could repaint new colors down the road and that radiant barrier will still be effective, whether it’s three or four or five layers of paint below the current layer of paint that you’re showing.

And it really does work. I mean if you go to their website, which is Insuladd.com, you can see, using an infrared technology, that it’s actually keeping the heat in and not allowing it to escape. And it really does have some good effects and it’s a very easy product to sort of mix into any sort of paint off the shelf that you can buy.