FAQ
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Where can one get the colour cards for your products?
All our colour cards are available at our sales points with the HGMIX mixing system.
The HGMIX mixing system enables the preparation of the selected colour shade based on a large number of colour cards, such as: INTERIOR COLOUR COLLECTION, EXTERIOR COLOUR COLLECTION, Monicolour 720, RAL, NCS and several others.
The colour cards can also be obtained from different professionals we work with (painters, facade builders). For individual products, some shades and colour cards can also be seen on our websites. -
I am renovating a 30-year old apartment, which I want to repaint and later on also paint a couple of the walls with stronger shades. The walls do not have any particularities (no large stains or mould). We are expecting a baby so we would like to use a paint with no unpleasant odour or harmful substances. Which paint can you recommend?
To paint indoor surfaces, we recommend SPEKTRA interior wall paints which are available in different qualities and shades. Given that there will be small children in the house, we recommend SPEKTRA Active Air interior wall paint, which breaks down up to 98% of harmful formaldehyde in the air, creating a healthier living environment. The paint allows for wet cleaning, is highly vapor-permeable, provides excellent coverage, and can be ordered in any colour shade you choose. If you are happy with white surface and with a coating resistant to dry wiping, we recommend using SPEKTRA Extra, which is easy to apply and provides good hiding power.
Each paint has also a certain scent of raw materials ‒ acrylic binders, which is typical for all water-based paints. The scent will remain in the room for a few days at most, until the coating is thoroughly dry. The paint is not harmful and is made in accordance with the latest standards of the European legislation.You can find all technical information about the products on our websites.
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We are soon planning to paint our newly-built apartment. As we would like to have coloured walls in some of the rooms, I would like to know where we could get colour cards of a bigger size than those available at the stores. It is difficult to get an idea of how everything will look like, as the colour cards you can get at the store are very small and you cannot transfer them to your apartment. Do you have any advice on this matter? What do you think about coloured ceilings?
As far as colour samples are concerned, they are only available in the colour card sizes. On our new colour cards, HGMIX INTERIOR and EXTERIOR COLLECTION, the format is slightly larger, making it easier to visualize the shades. However, we agree that sometimes the sample size is still too small to fully imagine the final result on the wall. That’s why painters, architects, and some consumers sometimes buy the smallest container of paint to create a test wall in the room.
Coloured ceilings are a matter of taste, but avoid overly intense shades, as they can visually lower the ceiling and create a "heavy" atmosphere. Conversely, a lighter ceiling can have the opposite effect. In practice, shade G113 MONICOLOR (cappuccino) works beautifully as a base tone instead of white (for both walls and ceilings). Although it may not look particularly special on the chart, this shade creates a very elegant effect, blending well with any wood tones and other elements in the home. It can also be paired with any other shade to create a smooth transition to bolder tones. Transitioning from white to a stronger colour can often be too stark and distracting.
Here are some lighter shades that look pleasant on the wall, along with a few bold ones to add vibrancy to your space, according to the MONICOLOR colour card: G058, G095, G079 paired with G058, G021, G015, J082 paired with J021, H084 paired with J122, K138, N125, S003, K015, and L043.
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I have a room that is quite long and narrow. How should I paint it to make it look wider?
In general it applies that dark shades make the room visually smaller, whereas light shades make it bigger. Therefore, we recommend painting the long sides of the wall with light shades, and the short ones with dark shades. This is the basic and simplest solution to visually broaden the room.
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We used some kind of epoxy resin and sand for the treatment of the plinth of our house 25 years ago. The surface is level and rough, without grease. Unfortunately, there is already a lot of damage and the paint (light brown) is not equal either. What kind of paint to use for renovation?
Epoxy resins are not a material that can be used for outdoor sun exposure, as epoxy itself is UV-unstable in direct sunlight, so we assume you have something similar to a mosaic that contains marble sands in the acrylic binder.
We suggest testing the product on a small surface first. Purchase SPEKTRA Impregnation Acryl or SPEKTRA Impregnation Acryl Special and the SPEKTRA Concrete Protect acrylic paint for concrete in the desired shade, then follow the procedure below:
1. wash the surfaces with water,
2. impregnate the washed and dried surfaces with SPEKTRA Impregnation Acryl, thinned with water in a 1:1 ratio (minimum 6 hours of drying),
3. then, following an interval of at least 8 hours, paint the surfaces with SPEKTRA Concrete Protect. -
I intend to paint and protect the exterior part of my beehives in the spring. The beehives will not be in the bee house, but outdoors, exposed to the rain, sun, wind and cold. I would like to know which coating you would recommend for a good protection of wood, which would at the same time have a minimum effect on the sensitive bees and their products.
In your case, we recommend using the environmentally friendly water-based coating for wood, BORI. The beehive and hive panels should not be coated with products containing biocides. We recommend the use of tinted BORI Woodstain in 3 layers or TESSAROL acrylic enamel.
Before assembling the beehives, we recommend precise coating all transversal cuts, as this is where wood absorbs the most water which consequently leads to the drying of the paint.
It is very important that the wood is dry before the painting. -
What to use to paint hallways in our new house? We would like to use a brown colour shade.
As you did not specify the desired intensity of the brown shade, we recommend two products.
If the house is new, we assume is has thermal insulation and that you do not have any problems with thermal bridges. In this case, we recommend using SPEKTRA Latex Matt. All more intense and darker brown shades are sensitive to the touch of a finger as they leave white spots on the surface. As the paint has a smooth film, it is sufficient to wipe the surface with a moist cloth only.
For light brown shades, you could also use the interior SPEKTRA Premium washable paint.
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What can we do with old paints and lacquers? Can they be disposed somewhere free of charge? Where in Ljubljana and its surroundings is it possible to dispose such waste? Can it be returned to the manufacturers?
In Ljubljana, and elsewhere as well, the Snaga company organizes a free-of-charge collection of hazardous waste (paints, lacquers, batteries, different oils, etc.). For more information, please contact the company.
If you have Helios paints left, you can also contact us.