Best Non-Fading Exterior Paints

Outdoor house paint fades when pigments that hold the color come in contact with a substance that breaks down that pigment such as light, ozone, or oxygen.

While outdoor paint fades gradually after interior painting, exterior paints are more prone to faster color fading because of constant exposure to UV light and other factors that affect the quality and depth of the pigment.

Faded exterior paint is aesthetically unappealing. It can make your home look like an eyesore, even if the construction and design are sound. And it’s important to remember that if your paint doesn’t look like new, it’s not performing as well as when it was first applied. This means fading paint is leaving your surfaces more vulnerable over time.

Sunlight hits your home in different areas for different lengths of time, so you’re likely to notice paint fading when one patch looks different from a nearby area.

How to Slow Down Paint Fading

Can You Slow Exterior Paint Fading?

Since you probably don’t live in a vacuum or a protective bubble, there’s no way to completely prevent these chemical reactions from fading exterior paint over time. However, there are things you can do to slow the process.

• Choose the Right Paint: Homeowners should select exterior paints with a reflective layer to counter the impact of light and UV rays on paint pigment. Some of the best rated house paint can be found at Sherwin Williams, Benjamin Moore and Behr Paint. These outdoor house paints are products like Duration and Emerald from Sherwin Williams, Aura from Benjamin Moore and Behr exterior paint Marquee. 

Recent research conducted in 2024 has identified certain exterior paints that excel in their non-fading properties. Sherwin Williams Duration and Emerald, along with Benjamin Moore's Aura and Behr's exterior paint Marquee, consistently receive high ratings for their exceptional resistance to fading. Sherwin Williams Duration impresses with its excellent coverage, durability, and one-coat protection that withstands the elements while maintaining vibrant color over time. On the other hand, Sherwin Williams Emerald is renowned for its exceptional resistance to blistering, peeling, and color fading, making it an ideal choice for homeowners seeking long-lasting results. Benjamin Moore's Aura stands out with its color lock technology, offering remarkable resistance to fading. Behr Paint Marquee is celebrated for its excellent durability, rich color palette, and advanced fade resistance, making it an attractive choice for homeowners who desire a vibrant and long-lasting exterior paint finish. Users of these four paints consistently report satisfaction with their performance, even in harsh weather conditions, making them the go-to options for a durable and vibrant exterior paint job.

Benjamin Moore Aura Exterior Paint

Benjamin Moore's Aura Exterior Paint is a revolutionary product that stands out for its superior color retention and resistance to harsh weather conditions. It offers exceptional longevity, ensuring that your home's exterior maintains its vibrant look for years to come.

• Color Lock Technology: This unique feature ensures remarkable resistance to fading, allowing the paint to retain its fresh, vibrant color for longer periods.
• Durability: Aura Exterior Paint is highly resilient and withstands harsh weather conditions, ensuring that your home's exterior remains looking its best.
• Superior Coverage: Aura provides excellent coverage with fewer coats, reducing the time and effort required for painting.
• Eco-friendly: The paint is low in VOCs, making it an environmentally friendly choice for homeowners who are conscious about their impact on the environment.

Sherwin Williams Duration Exterior Paint

Sherwin Williams Duration is a game-changer in the exterior paint market, renowned for its outstanding resilience, coverage, and long-lasting vibrancy. Here are the key features and benefits that set it apart:

• One-Coat Protection: Sherwin Williams Duration offers exceptional coverage, often requiring just a single coat to achieve full opacity. This feature saves time, labor, and cost of additional paint.
• Durability: Known for its extraordinary durability, Duration withstands harsh weather conditions and daily wear and tear, ensuring that your home's exterior retains its exceptional look for years.
• Vibrant Colors: Duration offers a wide array of vibrant, high-quality colors that resist fading, allowing the paint to retain its fresh, bright look for extended periods.
• Permeability: The paint is designed to be permeable, preventing moisture from getting trapped and thereby reducing the risk of blistering and peeling.

Sherwin Williams Emerald Exterior Paint

Sherwin Williams Emerald Exterior Paint has become a standout in the market due to its superior performance and innovative features. This premium exterior paint is packed with features that make it an excellent choice:

• Superior Resistance: Emerald's standout quality is its unprecedented resistance to blistering, peeling, and color fading. The paint is formulated to resist these common issues, ensuring that your home's exterior maintains its pristine and vibrant appearance for years to come.
• Self Priming: One of the features that sets Emerald apart is its self priming ability, eliminating the need for a separate primer. This innovation saves time, cost, and effort, streamlining the painting process.
• Durability: Emerald Exterior Paint is incredibly durable, able to withstand harsh weather conditions without compromising the integrity of the paint. This resilience ensures a long-lasting, quality finish for your home's exterior.
• Environmentally Friendly: Like its counterparts, Emerald is also low in VOCs, making it a responsible, eco-friendly choice for homeowners.

In comparison with other premium paints such as Sherwin Williams Duration and Benjamin Moore's Aura, Emerald holds its own, offering unique features like self-priming and superior resistance to common exterior paint problems. It's durability and eco-friendly nature make it an excellent choice for homeowners seeking both performance and environmental sustainability.

Behr Marquee Exterior Paint

Behr Marquee Exterior Paint has carved a niche for itself in the competitive paint market, thanks to its exceptional durability, rich color palette, and enhanced fade resistance. This top-tier exterior paint offers a range of compelling features that ensure your home's exterior remains vibrant and fresh for years to come.

• Advanced Fade Resistance: The standout feature of Behr Marquee paint is its robust resistance to fading. Its advanced formula ensures that the vibrant colors retain their luster and freshness even when exposed to harsh weather and sunlight, keeping your home's exterior looking freshly painted for years.
• Durability: Behr Marquee Paint offers extraordinary durability, effectively withstanding the elements and everyday wear and tear. This resilience ensures your home's exterior maintains its superior finish for a prolonged period.
• One-Coat Guarantee: Behr Marquee is renowned for its one-coat guarantee. This unique feature ensures that the paint provides full coverage in just one coat, saving on time, labor, and the cost of additional paint.
• Vibrant Color Palette: The paint offers a broad spectrum of vibrant, high-quality colors that resist dulling over time. This feature allows homeowners to choose from a diverse palette to achieve the desired aesthetic.
• Eco-friendly: Consistent with its industry counterparts, Behr Marquee Exterior Paint is low in VOCs, making it an eco-friendly choice for homeowners concerned about reducing their environmental footprint.

Note: Opt for Chemical Compounds: It’s often good to choose organic, but not if you’re looking for peak longevity from non-fading exterior paints. Organic color pigments don't resist UV light as well as pigments made from synthetic chemical compounds.

Do Exterior Paint Colors Matter?

Yes. According to Sensational Color, “Dark colors absorb heat and suffer more moisture problems than lighter shades. That's why lighter colors last longer and fade less than dark colors. And because dark colors fade faster, they are more difficult to touch up.” 

Red exterior paints tend to fade the fastest based on how their specific pigments interact with UV light. Whites and lighter neutrals are going to get you the most fade-resistant results. But if you want to go with a color, choosing a lighter shade will improve reflectivity and slow fading over time.

Some colors, like  yellow are formulated with interior paint pigments and not intended as an outdoor house paint. These colors will be flagged by the manufacturer with a notation on their in store color samples.

Which Paint Types Are Most Fade-Resistant?

Exterior painting done with acrylic paints is going to get great results if you’re looking for a more fade-resistant finish.

Acrylic exterior house paint lasts the longest in general when compared to other standard paint types. Acrylics are well-known for resisting damage caused by weather and other natural contaminants. Acrylic paints are a go-to for local house painters when it comes to resisting fading or damage caused by exposure to the sun, making them perfect for Roseville, CA homes. 

Another excellent choice when it comes to exterior painting for UV resistance is elastomeric paint. Elastomeric coatings offer a kind of “sunblock” for your home and are frequently used on home exteriors in hot climates, especially when homeowners need stucco painting or repair services. Another bonus? Elastomeric coatings are up to 10 times as durable as standard exterior paints, so you know your home will be cool and protected for the long haul. Elastomeric coatings are also considered some of the best exterior paint for humid climates as well as the best exterior paint for tropical climates.

Keep Paint Maintained

No paint is invincible. And in order for paint performance not to be compromised, you have to keep your acrylic or elastomeric paints maintained. Being proactive when you notice paint damage or degradation is part of that.

Hire Professional Exterior Painters

One of the best ways to ensure paint longevity and peak performance is to hire local house painters with the professional expertise required for proper application. To find the best exterior painters, google search terms like best exterior painters near me. Professional painting companies like TRICO PAINTING will be familiar with the best outdoor paint for your situation. Paints like acrylics and elastomerics are considered some of the best exterior paint coatings and they are designed to perform well against UV light for years. But if they’re improperly applied to exterior surfaces, oil based paints, or peeling paint, their effectiveness on your new paint job is compromised from the start. 

If surfaces aren’t properly prepared, if too much or too little paint or primer is used, or if painting was rushed before drying time was completed, your sun-resistant paints are underperforming. Not to mention, the aesthetics and curb appeal of your home are probably suffering, too.

Don’t take a chance when it comes to protecting your home. If you’re looking for more fade-resistant exterior paints or need a refresh on your UV-resistant paints and finishes, we’re ready to take on your project. Contact TRICO PAINTING for your service estimate today.