Interior house paint choice ?

[nospam4me]

I am looking for recommendations on some flat latex to paint the interior of a couple of rental houses I own . I really don't want to use the thin bottom of the line "contractor grade" stuff ( sold 5 gal / $35 ) but something in the 5ga/$60 range . Any recommendations on brands . I would prefer the superstores like HD , Lowes, even Walmart because of convenience but would go to Sherwin Wms or Porter Paints if the paint was superior quality for the same price . - Suggestions

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[jim]

i used some glidden paint about 15 yrs. back.. tried painting a sheetrock room... one coat after the other.... the paint was like water and just went into the sheetrock... after painting it four time, this one wall... i went to sherwin williams and got some paint and it worked great first time... i told this to other who say they used glidden and never had any problems, but if i paint i use the sherwinn williams paints they work great for me.. my time is worth more than the extra money you pay for quality materials.....

[David Alexander]

I normally like to go to Sherwin Williams. I like their Classic 99 just as well as their premium line (forget the name) and it saves a few bucks too. The biggest problem I have with SW is their hours. The one near me closes at 5PM on weekdays. If I can't make it over there in time after work I have to wait another day without painting. They use to be closed on Sundays too but recently started opening for just a few hours.

That said, I'm in the middle of painting many rooms in my house right now. A friend at work told me he recently used paint from Lowe's and like it. I decided to give it a try since the Sherwin Williams hours are killing me. I have to say that so far I'm quite pleased with the quality of the paint at Lowe's. It's thick and seems to cover about the same as the SW Classic 99. I plan to continue buying there for this project.

[Sixeye]

I've found Frazee to be best of those I've tried. Haven't tried Sherman Williams yet.

[Mary Shafer]

Frazee. Our last three houses have been painted with Frazee paint at construction, both inside and out, and we've had very good luck with both touching up and repainting. One house is over fifteen years old and the other two are in a tract with the oldest houses being about a dozen years old and they're all painted with Frazee.

I like the paint a lot. Single coat covers, which is nice in a rental, which one of these is. It washes well, too, which extends the time between painting. Goes on well, too.

Mary

[rchtravel]

Ditto on the Sherwin Williams....in the last year I remodeled a house, added an addition and painted ALL interior rooms with their interior latex "super paint". They also have the best damn primer I have ever used, Prime-rite 200. When painting new, primered drywall however, I'd recommend 2 coats, but have found one coat will do it when re-painting on simular shades. New drywall will soak up any paint.

ALSO -- make sure you ask to have "an account setup" to receive an additional 10% off, even on sale items! You do not have to be a business, they will still open an account for you. Then, you'll get

10% off of any purchase anytime (paint, supplies, and sale items as well). I try to avoid HD as much as possible, but you're right, between their business hours and return policies, sometimes it's the only choice.

Finally, I recommend using semi-gloss on the walls....it's much easier to clean. Flat paint works great on ceilings, plus will hide drywall/plaster seam flaws.

Hope this helps!

RC

[davefr]

Use Pratt and Lambert Accolade. The per gallon price is expensive but it covers most everything in one coat so it ends up being very cost effective.

Benjamin Moore comes pretty close.

The premium line from Miller is also pretty good.

[George]

I have had really good results with Sherwin-Williams both in my house and rental properties I own. Behr used to be good paint years ago before it became HDs flagship paint. The best quality Behr paint you can buy at HD is not even close to the quality of Sherwin-Williams.

[George]

I went over my friends the other day and they were repainting and using some big box store "premium" paint. She said that it was starting to look good after 2 coats! What a waste of time.

I remodeled a place a few years ago and some people thought that the Sherwin-Williams drywall primer was the finish coat because it covered so well.

[K, T, E & N]

You can get a 'Consumers Report' article on paint. My local library has the magazine in the reference section. Seems the last I looked, CR liked the paint at Lowe's called Valspar American Traditions. That was a few years ago - don't know if they've done an update since.

[jeffc]

You're probably right to avoid the cheapest stuff, but in my opinion, buying the next level up is an even worse mistake.

There are exceptions. For example, if you're going to be painting very very close to the same color over, you should be fine. Otherwise, you're going to need 2 coats. You will need 2 coats with cheap paint, and you'll need 2 coats with mid grade paint. What have you saved? Maybe a bit of spatter, but you've lost money.

Now compare that with the time and cost involved with a premium paint. How much is your time worth to you? It will cost twice as much, but it *will* go on in one coat (except for extreme colors, Sherwin Williams SuperPaint will, and to a certain extent their ProMar 200 and 400 will too.) This is super high covering paint. Other companies probably have similar products (maybe PlastiKote by Duron, etc.) I have never regretted paying this extra amount to cut my work time in half - and that includes when I was painting professionally for awhile (*especially* then, when every penny counted.)

[jeffc]

By the way - and no offense jim - but whenever you hear advice like this, it's completely worthless. There is no such thing as "brand name" paint. By that I mean there is no such thing as "Sherwin Williams" paint. There are only specific LINES of Sherwin Williams paint. They make cheap paint and they make great paint. Glidden also makes good paint, but that is not the type of Glidden paint jim used. (Glidden is also part of ICI Dulux, and they make a good paint - can't recall the name right now - Ultra something.)

[jeffc]

They are open early before work.

[jeffc]

Excellent advice. I forgot to mention that. If you go in looking like a painter and ordering 5 gallon jugs, they will often give you more if you act like a painter too. Talk about what your "customer" wants (so what if it's your wife?) I eventually got up to 30% off.

Oh no - way too shiny. Use a satin or eggshell sheen if you like for cleaning. Sherwin Williams also makes an easy clean flat, but it's expensive.

[jeffc]

As I said in an earlier post, there is no such thing as "Sherwin Williams" paint. For example, most of the stuff Behr makes is going to be better than SW StylePerfect. Even the pamphlets at the SW store will tell you that. For example, they rate it 1 star out of 5 in coverage, cleanability, splatter resistance, etc. Do NOT shop by brand, and especially do not spread anecdotes about painting with a mere brand name.