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Valspar paints

Hi Shortie,

Well all those pre-1960s years of brown and brunswick green were followed by the magnolia era, weren't they? And the black cars suddenly started splashing fancy bright colours with the Vauxhall Victor and the Nash Metropolitan. I guess everyone had suddenly woken up after the drab years of the slump and then the war.

Ah, Magicote (Berger Paints whose HQ is now in Singapore)! Until I looked it up I didn't realise they still made it. Permaglaze is still available too. Over here we only ever seem to see Greek brands, of which there are many, though I did see some little tins of Rustins last year. Since the Greeks don't use gypsum plaster, the walls aren't smooth enough for wallpaper, so almost everyone has the same white emulsion or tiles! I can't say I'm sorry about that as I used to hate removing old wallpaper!

Maurice :cool:
 
I also did not know that Magicote was still made, I don't think you can get it here, nor Permaglaze. I shall have to make efforts to look next time I go into B&Q.

Talking of the Greeks not using plaster (what do they use then?) I remember 23 years ago we went to Halkidiki for a holiday. It was dreadful, it was warm the day we arrived but cold from then on. We found there was no entertainment (it was not built up then), so all we could do was take a walk. We saw a man finishing off some houses. Rendering the walls he was. Someone had swept up, but left all the debris piled against the houses, and this man was rendering down to the pile of rubbish and then came to a stop. The rubbish was just rendered around, much to our astonishment. I think they are on a par with the Spanish for being a bit half-soaked!
 
Hi Shortie,

Houses out here are generally rendered with a mixture of quicklime and crushed marble so it comes up with a roughish sort of finish to which they just apply white emulsion - inside and out. No shortage of either material as the whole of the Greek islands are made of limestone. But the non-use of gypsum is not because it doesn't exist. There are vast gypsum quarries at Mochlos just over 20 miles east of here, but it's not generally used for building, more likely for alabaster wares and possibly plaster of Paris, I'm not sure.

You mentioned the building rubble, much of which is used as a filler in the stone walls of the older houses. Nowadays most new houses are either concrete, because we are in an earethquake zone, any building over one storey has to have extensive steel reinforcements inside, or expensive quality stone. The days of rubble-filled walls on new buildings have now gone. Our house is a mixture of both because we extended it, but 19 inch thich rubble-filled walls are very good insulators both in the cold winter and the hot summer!

Getting back to paint, you probabl;y won't find it in B & Q, more likely a small decorating shop, as I wouldn't imagine it is a fast-moving stock item these days!

Maurice :cool:
 
Well Maurice it was not so much building rubble as just dust and stuff with the odd bit of brick that had been swept up - we could not get our breath to be honest - although that said, it was possibly what was left over from filling the wayys. Surely they should have moved it to finish the render, but no, just finished the render about an inch above it and left it - one small 'molehill' against the side of the house, so to speak. They were only single storey houses, too, possibly holiday homes. The thick walls filled with rubble does sound a good way of insulating against the cold and the heat - I am now feeling nostalgic about holidays talking about sun and homes abroad!!!

I doubt if I will ever find Magicote again then, no small decorating shops here, but there might be where my daughter lives. I think I would be quite delighted if I could see the name again, nice memories of the shop.

Shortie
 
A painter I worked with used "wallop" as he used to call it on certain walls within a grade 2 listed building, it came as a lime powder and was mixed with water, it didn't seal the wall so allowed it to breath, it was also known as distemper or whitewash.

Colin
 
Distemper is not the same thing, but the 'nickname' may have been transferred when Walpamur came out. Distemper used to come off on your hand when you touched it, not very nice stuff at all. I am not sure if whitewash was the same as distemper. I seem to remember that Walpamur was reasonably superior to distemper in terms of quality - and there were quite a few colours - all pale, probably about eight different ones, we used to keep the shade cards in the shop.
 
I Think it must have been Distemper my Mom used to put on the Wall of our outside Toilet in the 60s. You woul looked like Mr PASTRY when you came out.
 
That's right, my husband said he understood that is what people painted their coal-houses with! (Painting a coal house is new to me!!)
 
Hi! When I was about 10 or11 now i`m 68 I was either coming from school or the swiming baths in Aston, grove lane? memory is going! and used to go past Postans paint to get home. One day as I got to Postans it was evident that it was fully ablaze with fire engines. I remember watching it for almost an hour, it was totally destroyed. Thereafter they moved to Neachells i think. Some years later when selling vending machines i remember calling in to see them. Does anyone remember the fire ? It was sometime in the 50s.
 
hi nattermax
yes i can recall postmans paint and when they moved to aston church rd nechells ; and now the postmans paint site is now valspar paints
but for years they traded postmans paint i went down aston church rd nechells last year and much to my surpries they had been renaned valspar paint
and years ago in my opiniun nobody or at least afw would by there paint it was runny and rubbish paint ;durolux on george street sprng hill was the best paint all those sixty years ago ; how time fly,s our kid ; have a great day best wishes astonian
 
I sprayed a few old bangers with Valspar years ago, lasted well - or at least, as long as the old cars - and had an instant shine. thinned with white spirit for spraying it took a good few days locked in the garage to dry though.
 
Great information on both Valspar and Tekaloid. Tekaloid was my late Father in Law's first choice for painting vehicles. When he painted a Morris Minor for me though he could only get Valspar. He hand painted it early one evening when the air was still. Following day I drove it to work at Lucas Gt Hampton Street. Nobody would believe it was hand painted it was that good a finish. Have to dig out a photo one day as it was an interesting looking car.
 
Talking of paints that are no longer on the market.what happened to permaglaze from tyseley in the old days???
Ken
 
caggyken said:
Talking of paints that are no longer on the market.what happened to permaglaze from tyseley in the old days???
Ken
Click to expand...

Only a year and a half later, I'll repeat the question.

I can remember my Father working at Permaglaze and from there he went on to work at Thornley & Knights in Bordesley Green Road. IIRC, T&K were at the forefront of developing Powder Coating. I can certainly remember him taking certain metal items to work and returning with them some days later with an immaculate paint finish.
 
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