Mildew resistance of interior paints has become a topic of greater interest to paint companies in recent years.They are constantly evaluating their'new and improved'formulations for various properties including hiding,staining,scrub resistance,fading and mildew resistance.The test methods for measuring these properties typically are established methods such as ASTM test methods.For evalu-ating mildew resistance,however,there is always uncertainty about which test method to follow for a realistic assessment of paints.Methods popularly employed in coatings for testing mildewcidal properties are Military Spec 81 OF,ASTM D- 5590(Agar Plate method)and ASTM D - 3273(Environmental Chamber Method).Some methods that are similar in principle but not used in coatings industry are ASTM C-1338,ASTM G-21,and a test method from Forest Products Laboratories(FP).In this study several commercially available paints of different grades previously tested by independent lab(s)were evaluated in two agar plate based methods,the standard ASTM D- 5590 and the Forest Products Laboratory method published in 2000 and by the humidity chamber method based on ASTM D-3273.An attempt to establish a correlation between the methods is presented.
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