One City; Two Conditions: Exigent Parameters for Paint Performance in Lagos, Nigeria

Abstract

Tropical buildings are subjected to many militating elements of climate, prominent among which are insolation and rainfall. However, the study area has an additional influence from the Atlantic Ocean which is just a few meters away from the buildings. The sea breeze is laden with high salt content which has adverse effects and reactions on the materials used for building finishes. The outer skin-external surface of any building does not have any protection in most cases due to its function as the protective layer. However, the influence of this prevalent saline air differs from one part of the study area to another due to distance. The study bifurcated the city through a survey approach into two zones A&B to obtain data for empirical analysis. Various correlations were drawn while regression analysis was carried out. The means of the two zones were determined through ANOVA to establish the performance of paint in service in the two locations. Frequencies and all the analysis were run through SPSS version 15.0 for the study. Data was also obtained from practicing Architects in Lagos through a structured interview. It shows that depreciation of paint sets in faster and repainting is required earlier in Zone A than Zone B due to more aggressive impact of saline air. The established research findings that stipulate 5-7years for maintenance of paint does not hold in areas subjected to saline air. The research is geared towards establishing the appropriateness of the use of paint in a saline laden environment when compared with other parts of the tropical region. Specifiers/architects, developers and property owners are hereby educated on the implication of their choice. Manufacturers are equally advised to develop paint that will retard the effect of saline air the more. This study is the first attempt to analytically investigate the impact of saline air on the maintenance requirement of paint in the tropical region.

Keywords: Atlantic Ocean; external finishes; climate; frequency; impact; maintenance; paint; performance; saline air; salt