How to Store Paint in a Safe and Compliant Way

Author Andy Potts | Reading time approx 2 mins

Storing paint is a natural thing to do after you have completed a job at home or in a commercial setting. You paint your house then store it in the garage or a shed ready for any remedial touch ups, but are you storing it safely?

If you work in a commercial setting where you may have many litres of the flammable stuff and thinners sitting around, then storage and handling is absolutely critical to the operation of your business. If you misuse paint in a commercial setting, it could result in not only an accident but also the complete shutdown of your business by the HSE until you have rectified your procedures.

It's actually a requirement by law to have a bunded area for the storage of paint. Imagine a spill of some highly toxic coating, as it isn't secured or safely stored in a bunded area it leaves the entire area you left it in open to contamination. Many paints contain harsh fumes known as VOC's or Volatile Organic Compounds, if humans are exposed to these VOC fumes it damages the respiratory system as well as the environment around it.

If you have a major VOC leak or fume issue above legal thresholds there is a distinct possibility that the HSE (Health & Safety Executive of the UK ) may be knocking on your paint shop door and closing you down.

The HSE can even issue significant fines after dragging you to court a number of times, numerous fines and court cases mean you aren't doing what you should be, operating your business.

That might be an extreme case but the serious part to take note is that you could face the consequences if you fail to comply.

So now you know the ultimate risks, staying compliant when you are using paint in either a commercial, industrial or residential arena is crucial.

Keeping paint safe is easily accomplished with a bund. The bund should be able to hold 110% of the largest container to allow for excess foaming which can occurr during any emergency paint leaks.

You should also be regularly inspecting the bunds to ensure their soundness and take into consideration the drainage of rainwater. As well as maintaining your bunded area you should be aware of the ventilation needed if any pouring out of paint is needed.

If you do a lot of mixing, pouring, thinning and blending of paints then you should consider purchasing a paint kitchen. This gives you an efficient extraction system, a bunded floor, mixing benches and many other features that are vital for a compliant paintshop.

Once you have a compliant paint shop you must also keep it compliant, and the best way to achieve this is by following COSHH . Which stands for the Control Of Substances Hazardous to Health. Basically this organisation is established to prevent workers being exposed to dangerous things. To do this successfully you need to have in place some COSHH cabinets for the storage of the paint.

Also, if the weather is cold, it is vital to keep the paint stored at the correct temperature. Therefore some infra red storage heaters or an equivalent will be well worth the investment.

If you are storing your paint at the wrong temperature then your paint will be too thick or thin, meaning you will have problems with the finish. To make sure that your paint will be the correct consistency for your painters, then you should be storing your paint between 15 and 20°C throughout the year.

For flammable paints, solvents and chemicals a bund would make a practical addition to your paint shop kit. The bund prevents leakage and itself painted in 2 pack chemical resistant epoxy paint makes it extremely durable to spills.

If something adverse happens to your paint and the solvents happen to catch on fire, then this container will ensure that the fire doesn't spread to anywhere else in your paint shop.