Cool Life Paint

Cool Life Paint in Los Angeles

Exterior paint in Los Angeles is a five to seven year purchase. UV fades it, stucco movement cracks it, and the whole cost comes around again. Cool Life is a different category of product, a high-build acrylic ceramic coating applied many times thicker than paint, formulated to waterproof the wall, bridge hairline cracks, and reflect solar heat rather than absorb it. The repaint cycle you stop paying for is the larger part of the saving. The cooling effect is real and it is modest, and we would rather tell you that up front.

What this saves you

• Electricity
• Repaint cycle

Two savings, one job. The bigger one is the exterior repaint you stop buying every six years. The smaller one is on your cooling.

• Berkeley Lab research on solar-reflective cool walls, with field sites including Los Angeles, found that raising wall reflectance from 0.25 to 0.60 cut HVAC energy cost by 5 to 7% in hot climates, with benefits comparable to cool roofs.

  Source: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

• The same research measured reflectance loss of no more than 0.05 after twelve to fifteen months of exposure, so the effect does not wash off in the first winter.

  Source: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

• Manufacturer testing puts elongation above 250% and tensile strength around 350 psi, which is what lets the film flex with stucco through the daily thermal cycle instead of cracking with it.

  Source: Lifetime Plus Coatings product data

The straight answer

Cool walls are single-digit percentage savings, not a headline number, and Los Angeles sits at the lower end of the published range because our heating penalty offsets part of the cooling gain. If a salesperson tells you a wall coating will halve your electric bill, they are making it up. Buy this for the waterproofing and the end of the repaint cycle, and take the cooling as a genuine extra.

Works best with: Attic Insulation Roofing HVAC & Air Conditioning

Savings depend on your house, your equipment and how you use it. We will not quote you a guaranteed number, and neither should anyone else. See the rebates currently available

What makes it different from paint

Cool Life is a high-build coating, roughly twenty times the thickness of conventional exterior paint, reinforced with fibres that bridge hairline cracking and formulated with titanium dioxide to resist chalking and oxidation. Diatomaceous earth keeps the film breathable so trapped moisture can escape, and mildewcide resists mould and algae growth. The practical result is a wall that is sealed against driving rain and still able to dry.

Reflectance and the energy case

The manufacturer reports solar reflectance around 82% and thermal emittance around 91%. In practical terms the wall absorbs far less of the infrared load that drives afternoon heat gain, which shows up as a lower wall surface temperature and less air conditioning runtime through a Valley summer. Paired with attic insulation and an efficient system it is one of three levers that actually move a cooling bill, and it is the smallest of the three.

Preparation is the whole job

We pressure wash, cut out and patch failed stucco, seal cracks, prime bare and chalking substrate, and mask thoroughly before any coating goes on. A premium coating applied over failing substrate fails with the substrate. Colours are UV stabilised and the system carries a manufacturer warranty, and we will go through the exact written terms with you before you commit.

What’s included

• High-build ceramic coating up to 20 times the thickness of paint
• Waterproof film that seals and bridges hairline cracks
• High solar reflectance, so a cooler wall and less AC runtime
• Fibre reinforced and flexible through thermal movement
• Mildewcide and UV blockers resist mould, algae and fading
• Full prep: wash, stucco repair, crack seal, prime, mask

Questions we get about Cool Life Paint