What is this standard about?
It specifies 122 colours of paint for building and construction works. This is an essential reference for anyone who needs a particular paint colour to use in the refurbishment of buildings – especially at local authority level or for major works, such as office blocks, airports, schools and hospitals. This standard includes 22 additional colours that are mostly brighter to reflect the latest trends for putting finishes on public buildings. These paint colours are widely recognized throughout the UK and are often used to meet safety, legal or contractual requirements.
Who is this standard for?
- Decorators
- Interior designers
- Painters
- Suppliers of paint
- Professionals working in the colour industry
- Building contractors
- Paint manufacturers
- Facilities managers
- Office managers
Why should you use this standard?
All the paint colours have been chosen from BS 5252 – a framework of 237 colours. This framework was developed to complement selections of other materials and applications. BS 4800 consists of explanatory text, colorimetric data and spectral reflectance data, as well as an overlay that identifies all the specified colours. BS 4800F is a colour fan designed for visual matching. This fan contains large and accurate samples of reproduced paint colours.
What’s changed since the last update?
This is the third edition of BS 8400. It updates the previous second revision published in 1989. This edition retains the same selection of colours, adds 22 more and has the following major changes:
- The selection of colours has been revised to reflect market demands. More colours have been included from the full range specified in BS 5252 that are expected to be popular. Some colours have been marked as obsolescent but won’t be removed until the next edition of this standard. This partly reflects a perceived trend in the decoration of public buildings such as hospitals and schools to use brighter colours in place of some traditional browns, greens and greys.
- Some definitions such as “full gloss finish”, “eggshell finish”, etc. have been removed along with the associated “availability” information and the “basic selection” of colours.
- Colorimetric data has been included in the format used in BS 381C
- Spectral reflectance data for each individual colour have been included (see Tables 2 to 6).