Facade paint white tone - No RAL specification, how to decide?

There are surely many members here with white facades. Maybe some of them can say something about which white was used.

@11ant! Nice to have you back. :)

Now don’t count your chickens before they hatch – just a few hours ago the scissors were put to the tablecloth again, so: who knows how much longer :-(

Dear @11ant had already answered me on the same question a few days ago.

yes exactly,

I cannot understand the argument "it depends on the substrate anyway, so RAL doesn’t matter" at all.

That would be a significant misunderstanding. RAL is not "irrelevant," it is simply not usable as a precise standard insofar as the color tones "vary" on different materials in the final result. Unfortunately, it can only be deeply mourned that the RAL approach cannot provide the accuracy of Pantone. The builder (and also the average building material manufacturer) has no alternative, because on the one hand there are no comparable pocket standards from Pantone, and above all no tables or methods to "convert" or otherwise translate tones from one of the two systems into the other. No wealthy benefactor has yet commissioned such a comprehensive work from Pantone. Thus, we do not know how RAL 9016 would be defined in Pantone. For the applications of "traffic white" this does not pose a problem in practice, since the surface of traffic signs is sufficiently similar to that of glossy cards for color fans.

Precisely because there are differences depending on the substrate and the individual conditions of the facade, I want a somewhat reliable reference point along the lines of: "Our bright white corresponds to RAL 9016, but be careful, on the house facade it looks different than on the inside edges of the windows."

The problem is unfortunately that the difference between two RAL tones can even “flip” when you look at a different material. If you compare two RAL tones and find that on wood A is lighter than B, you may get the impression on metal that A is bluer and B is yellower. Some web designers provide overviews that translate RAL tones into the much more systematic CMYK color space—but unfortunately several do so with different stated approximation values. Especially with white, black, and gray tones, opinions differ the most even there. A residual amount of bewilderment is therefore practically unavoidable. Comfort yourselves (or deepen your despair) with the fact that the differences always appear different in the morning in October than in the evening in April.

There are surely many members here with white facades. Maybe they can say something about which white was used.

White! Standard!

One point is also that the shade/the finished facade blends harmoniously into the surroundings and does not appear as a foreign body.

Believe me, your facade will sooner or later adapt to the surroundings. Take the lightest white - it will get darker by itself.

For me, among your color samples, "bright white" is the only color I perceive as approximately "white." My choice would fall on "bright white" if I wanted a white facade.

I do not have a concrete answer to your question, but I can confirm again that the colors, whether inside or outside, always appear darker in reality than on the color samples.

Our exterior facade as well as the interior walls are considerably darker than selected and desired, but acceptable. I do not want to demand more than "acceptable," as I would only become unhappy with house construction/interior design. ;-)

Console yourselves (or deepen your despair) with the fact that the differences always look different in the morning in October than in the evening in April.

It is as you say, and one gets used to it. I have chosen consolation over despair, even though the color differences bother me. ;-)

If RAL 9016 is the desired color, then I would choose Light White. You will never get everything to fit together perfectly because there are already tolerances in the production of identical parts.

If you use different substrates and various coating systems, there are fundamentally deviations. For example, if you have a coarse plaster, it will appear a bit grayer than a fine plaster when using the same color. This is simply because the grains of the coarse plaster cast slight shadows, giving the surface a grayish tint. How strong this effect is naturally depends again on the light.

If you choose facade paint based on a color fan and even worse based on a PC screen and then receive the color you imagined, you have done nothing but have extremely good luck. In my opinion, there is no 100% accurate option; reasons have already been mentioned. The best option in my view is for the plasterer to paint color samples side by side on the finished plastered house. Ideally, not just on one side of the facade. Then you take a few days and look at it under different daily, weather, and lighting conditions. Decide but be aware that the sun produces different light and light color in winter compared to summer. Alternatively, sample pieces on plasterboard panels. The advantage is that it is mobile and can be held up to all facade sides and in sun/shade. That’s how we did it. However, we did not choose white but a beige earth tone as the color. You are more likely to be “completely off” if the color later has a pink tint when the sun shines (already seen). On the other hand, one should not overdo it. If you don’t have a direct comparison, I am convinced that most people do not even recognize different shades of white on finished houses.