Who's telling you this, and what are they selling
A figure on a tin or on a website came from somewhere, and the organisation that put it there was usually not a neutral party. A manufacturer publishes a vapour resistance number because it sells a coating. A retailer publishes a drying time because it sells a product in a weatherproof way its own returns policy can live with. Neither is lying, but neither is writing for you as its first concern either.
What a manufacturer publishes
A manufacturer's datasheet is usually the only place a specific coating's own figures appear at all, which makes it worth reading. It is also written to sell that coating, so a coverage rate, a drying time or an application temperature on a datasheet reflects conditions chosen to show the product well.
What a retailer publishes
A retailer repeats manufacturer figures, sometimes with its own seasonal guidance added on top. Where a retailer's drying or waiting time differs from an independent source, both figures are worth having, because they are answering slightly different questions: one is about selling the tin, the other about how the coating actually behaves outdoors.
What an independent publisher does differently
An independent publisher has no coating to sell and no coverage claim to defend. That does not make it infallible. It means a figure from this kind of source is worth more weight precisely because nothing rides on which answer it gives.
Before you act on any figure, whatever its source, it is worth asking a few questions.
- Who published this figure, and what do they sell?
- Does the figure come with a unit and a direction on its scale, or just a number?
- When was it published, and has anything newer corrected it?
- If a trade body or standard is named, is it the body itself speaking, or someone summarising it?
None of that tells you which figure is right. It tells you what to weigh against what, which is the most a reader comparing two tins or two quotes can reasonably do.
Manufacturers, retailers and publishers compared
A figure for slip resistance or vapour behaviour means something different depending on who published it. This sets out what each type of organisation in the trade sells, what it publishes, and what that is worth weighing before you act on a number.
| Organisation type | What it sells | What it publishes | What to check |
|---|---|---|---|
| Manufacturer | The coating itself, usually through a dealer or trade counter network | A technical data sheet written to support its own product | Figures are tested under the conditions stated in that datasheet. |
| Retailer | Tins over the counter or online, often across several brands at once | Product descriptions and sometimes a buying guide, written to sell what is in stock | Guidance can differ between branches of the same chain, or between the website and the counter |
| Lead generation site | Introductions to a contractor, usually paid for by the contractor per enquiry | Advice pages built to carry you towards an enquiry form | The advice exists to get a form filled in. |
| Independent publisher | Nothing. No coating, no fitting, no referral fee | Figures attributed to the body that defined them, with the date they were read | No product on offer here, so no figure on this page is pointing you towards a sale |
This sets out how the trade is generally structured. Where a specific source is cited for a figure elsewhere on this site, it is named and dated there.
The two independent publishers, and what neither one covers
Two publishers in this subject write without anything to sell. pavingexpert, run by AJ McCormack and Son, covers sealants in detail, with season and weather figures for sealing work. It does not cover paint. The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) covers lime render and solid-walled construction, including why the wrong coating traps moisture in an old wall. It does not cover patios, paving or paths.
Where that leaves a reader with a tin in each hand
Between the two, there is no independent publisher whose subject is patio coatings themselves, covering paint and sealant, concrete and stone, side by side. A figure for sealing a sandstone path sits with one publisher. A figure for render on a solid wall sits with the other. Nobody connects them, which is why a figure drawn from either needs to be read for what it was written about.
Where a question falls outside what either publisher covers, the better move is to ask the manufacturer directly for the figure.