82
comments
comments
Home Depot Paint Secrets
Email
 Print
|
Okay, these aren’t really paint secrets, but my fiancée and I were waiting around at Home Depot, getting some paint mixed, chatting with the paint guy and came away with some “secrets” (yeah, that’s in quotes, these probably aren’t secrets to you but I was surprised to learn them).
- Behr is Home Depot’s brand of paint and it’s actually pretty good quality paint but it sells terribly when it’s not on sale (at least at the local store I was at), which happens once every season. Those sales usually coincide with a major long weekend in that season, like Labor Day and Memorial Day. Expect to see Behr paint sales this upcoming long weekend.
- Most people paint during those long weekends, probably because they either have a lot of time or because they plan on having some company over. If I were to guess, I wouldn’t have picked these long weekends… it’s enough stress planning for people coming over for Thanksgiving or the holidays, why add to that by painting?
- Behr on sale isn’t the cheapest paint despite being a Home Depot brand.
- When you request a color, you bring up a can of the brand’s base white and HD mixes in the dyes for you – all those dyes are all Behr dyes. In fact, you could, if you wanted to, bring a Behr base white and request a color from Sherwin Williams but the color won’t come out perfectly because every brand’s white is slightly different.
- The guy, who wasn’t one of those overachievers looking to push corporate speak, said that it was surprising how white Behr paint was, in fact he mentioned how Sherwin Williams’ white actually looks gray next to the whiteness of Behr paint. What this also means is that if you tried to take the formulations designed for Sherwin Williams and put them in Behr paint, to pay Behr prices, you would get colors that would be lighter… but otherwise be “fine.”
- “[...] use this tip: ask to open an “account” This just involves giving your personal info (fake it if you want). Then they’ll give you the commercial discount every time – 10% or 15% depending on the associates mood. Just make sure as they’re ringing you in to mention that you have an account with them.” (Great tip courtesy of Kelly, Thanks!)
- Of course, look up some Home Depot coupons to make the purchase cheaper!
We’re redoing our basement a little, carpeting the floor and painting the wall a little lighter color, so if you have any painting tips or “secrets” (even if they’re not that good), please share!
{ 82 comments, please add your thoughts now! }
Related Posts
 By Jim |
 Stumble It! Bookmark reddit.comTags: May 20, 2007 | Read more in The Home |
Like this article? Get all the latest articles sent to your email for free every day. Enter your email address and click "Subscribe." Your email will only be used for this daily subscription and you can unsubscribe anytime.
No kidding!
I didn’t know there could be a ‘whiter’ white.
Ever see an artistic wedding photo of the bride in her wedding dress? Where she “glows” to an extent that is not only painful, but she burns out detail in the background? That is Behr Ultra Pure White. They mean it, and they’re sticking to their claim.
I love Behr paint and painted my entire house with it and I don’t care what it costs its totally worth it. My “secret” tip is, if you use that blue tape to tape off windows and stuff, leave it on overnight after you’ve finished painting or when you try to pull it off, it’ll pull some of the paint off the wall too. Also… you can put your paint covered paintbrush or roller in a bag over night so you don’t have to rinse it out every night. Just make sure the bag is closed, it doesn’t have to be airtight. You can just take your roller pan and roller and put the entire thing in a garbage bag to keep for the next day if you don’t finish the paint job in one day. Hope this helps.
I’ve given up on using painter’s tape altogether – I just freehand it. With very little practice (start with a window so you can remove mistakes with a razorblade) it becomes quite easy. Saves a lot of time!
Saving roller covers: we’ve even gone so far as to put them in aluminum foil, inside a ziploc bag in the refrigerator. We’ve used them for two weeks without rinsing them out, with no problems!
Have you tried that new Frog tape? It’s at Walmart and seems to come off cleanly just like it states it does.
I find the Behr brand of paint to be of high quality. Easy to use. Covers nicely.
About two years ago we painted several rooms after buying a house. We still have a bit to do and hope to get around to it someday.
How have you found the Behr paint so far? I picked up 2 five gallon containers of it during one of the Home Depot sales and used it in the garage (started with bare drywall). Compared to Benjamin Moore (we used that inside), I found that Behr required additional coats. It certainly costs a bit more, but being a Berkshire shareholder makes up for that, at least a little bit
Here are some thoughts on painting and a list of items that I picked up to get us started:
–OL
It’s taking more coats because you’re putting it over bare un-primed drywall. Gypsum acts like a sponge and just sucks up paint. That’s why drywall primer is cheap as dirt compared to regular paint.
Anonymous is correct. New drywall primers “flash seal” the new drywall paper covering. You can use the best, most expensive, paint in the world, and you’ll probably just keeping feeding the gypsum until you destroy what little structural integrity it has. When in doubt, make it stout…the rest of the time, it’s best to prime.
As a home builder, I’d like to point out that you CAN mix a near-perfect* clone of a Sherwin Williams color with Behr paint. They just can’t use the formulation (i.e. typing in the color codes for the Sherwin Williams paint), they have to use their color-matching machine to scan the color sample from Sherwin Williams which will then output the correct formulation to match that color with Behr base stock.
*I say near-perfect because they say that the color scanner doesn’t necessarily generate a perfect match, but I find that 9 times out of 10 I can’t tell the difference.
Actually, the paint tint machine that home depot uses now can get sherwin williams color on it. Home Depot has all the major paint companys on the computer.
This is true. Without getting into THD brands (Americas Finest, Glidden, Behr, Martha Stewart, etc.), Sherwin Williams, Benjamin Moore, Lowes, WalMart, et al, are in the competitive formula database. There ARE coding errors, however (“Hint of Mint” should be a green…but it comes out blue), but these errors are reported. All competitive formulas are specific to brand and base.
A properly calibrated color scanner should be able to get as close as any two batches of a color will. The problem is nobody calibrates them.
WRONG! Although individual mileage varies, THD stores calibrate the spectrophotometers before opening, at mid-day, and, if a tenured associate is on duty, whenever a formula “looks funny.” Most obvious is matching a Behr Ultra Pure White (brightest, scariest white on the planet Earth) to any other brand’s base white. Takes some experience, but too much Lamp Black or Burnt Umber soon becomes obvious.
The real problem is four-fold. (1)The white standard (part of the instrument) must be clean. (2)The chamber between the lamp and the sample must be completely free of detrious. (3)Lamps and collectors in the instrument wear out. (4) Do not bring a bad sample (hunk of poorly painted booger wood) to be matched. The spectrophotometer will also penetrate thin or sun faded paint (the lamp can damage your eyes) and “see” the paint underneath. Of course, it won’t match the sun faded stuff.
Thermopyle has been around the block a few times…heed Thermopyle.
To dumb Thermopyle down to the easiest understandable analogy, consider a Xerox, of a Xerox, of a Xerox, etc. That first copy is so close that one cannot really see the difference, even with the original to compare it to. You don’t need the original to see that the tenth generation sucks.
Spectrophotometry is an approximation…a facsimily.
BTW, we are all “stoopid,” and our brains “protect” us from such things as absolutes. Spectrophotometers have “eyes” that are not connected to “brains” which worry about whether or not we’ll be reduced to a whimpering, half-representation of human, just because the blue came off just over the grey side, rather than the brown side.
My husband and I have painted many houses in our Military Career as Officer and a Wife and i will love the most expensive item on a rack with out even touching or looking at a tag. Quality and comfort is my name. We have lived in the high dessert and the Low beach.
Behr is our favorite. Les Coats, Most coverage, Easy to Clean. Everything depends on the base you are painting and the type of Behr paint you use. There are different paints in every Brand. Behr is the Best. I would let your contractors use Behr. Also a color chip will Fade Make sure to bring in a new one and the scanner only pikes up the darkest color of a fabric. Have fun with your project.
My wife and I (mostly my wife) are in the process of painting most of the interior rooms of our house. Next time, only one room at a time…
We went with Behr because they were rated highly in consumer reports. A few weeks ago I was in Home Depot and saw that it was on sale, so I went home, we made our final color decisions, measured everything, and went back to get our paint. We started painting last Monday, and were planning on getting our cat this weekend, but with all the crappy weather the walls haven’t been drying very quickly so we left the cat up at my mother’s house for an extra week and will be painting this week as well. I need to get off my butt and start writing about the painting process on my site; I’ve been lazy. My wife is writing a few articles for it, so I’ll probably just put up what she says.
Painters tape is expensive but very worth it! Just be sure to wash your walls and patch your holes before you put the tape up or start painting. We use a small 2″ roller to get the edges and corners by the tape and around outlets. We do the rest of the walls with a normal sized roller. The 2″ foam roller is a bit easier than the 4 inch regular style roller, we think.
Instead of buying roller cove tray liners, you can use Glad Press and Seal to cover them.
spend the time to tape off the trim, windows, etc. and cut-in around the edges…the prep time IS a pain BUT well worth it in clean-up, quality and making the rest of the job move along quickly. Also, don’t use cheap paint brushes and wash them well…they’ll last forever.
If you’re using latex paint, you don’t need to use tray liners at all. Leave a slightly thicker layer of residue in the tray overnight to dry, and then in the morning it will just peel off in one big piece.
Also…the man earlier who said that you can get a near-perfect colour match is correct. ANY paint store can do this for you, not just HD. Benjamin Moore has some of the most beautiful colours going, and you can take them to ANY paint supplier and get them mixed in ANY brand of paint you prefer. Remember, just because it’s more expensive paint doesn’t mean it will be better. Everyone has preferences.
Paint with titanium additives is well worth any slight price-increase. It’s far more durable, gives twice the coverage, and is much more scrubbable. It’s usually also only a couple of dollars more per gallon, so double the coverage for a very slight price increase=great deal.
Using good quality brushes was also a great tip. They don’t leave bristles all over your wall. And if you’re taking a break between coats, wrapping rollers and brushes in a plastic bag is a great idea. Seal them tightly. If you’re not going to get back to the painting right away, they can be stored in the freezer for longer lasting freshness.
Finally (sorry to hijack your comments!), don’t paint when it’s wet outside. You can, and will have great results…but the more humid and damp the weather, the longer your paint will take to dry between coats. If you don’t allow proper drying time, your second coat will actually REMOVE paint rather than add it. You’ll end up with an uneven, blotchy finish. So either wait a bit longer between coats, or just wait for a bit nicer day before starting.
Happy home improvements!
When you clean your brushes, during the rinsing process, comb through them with a cheap, black, “grandpa” pocket comb. It helps get some of the semi-dry, clumpy paint that accumulates higher up on the bristles.
If you are able to leave your brushes dry overnight, do a final finse in white vinegar. It helps keep the bristles soft, but if you try to paint while the brush is damp with vinegar, it streaks.
I’m no longer a fan of Behr and instead go to Sherwin Williams. (I understand Benjamin Moore is similar.)
SW paint spreads more smoothly and has better coverage. It’s easier to clean up. And I suspect it doesn’t cost more if you use this tip: ask to open an “account.” This just involves giving your personal info (fake it if you want). Then they’ll give you the commercial discount every time – 10% or 15% depending on the associates mood. Just make sure as they’re ringing you in to mention that you have an account with them.
Tape: I went through a lot of expensive tape and have found that simply learning to cut in without tape is far faster and more effective. I use a 2.5″ angled brush (buy high quality and wash it promptly) and simply run the brush along the corner without tape. With a little practice, you can make a very nice straight line. Don’t waste time with tape.
Good luck.
Make sure to pull the painter’s tape from the trim and window areas as soon as you have finished painting the area. Don’t let the paint dry first, or you will rip the paint from the wall.
No matter what, buy quality equipment. It is well worth the cost!
You mentioned you will be installing carpet also. Be sure to paint before putting in new carpet! I did it this way when I finished my basement last year and it made it so much easier to not worry about spilling paint on the floor!
ditto on the no taping. I recently painted 2 rooms and took time to prep the room edges + baseboard with painter’s tape. After painting we tried to take the tape off that day and it pulled some paint off the wall so we left the tape there for 2 days to dry. We ended up having the trim the edges with a razor blade and cut away the tape so it wouldn’t take paint off the walls. Just take the time around edges w/ an angled brush and straightedger.
We were using Sherwin Williams Duration paint. Great stuff, but way too expensive ($40+)
Also, tinfoil to cover the rollers overnight seemed a lot less messy than plastic bags.
Jim, does Kelly’s tip apply to Home Depot (as implied in the last point)? When I read it, it seemed to apply to Sherwin Williams, which has it’s own stores (at least in some areas).
Hmmm, I interpreted her comment to apply to Home Depot but it might only apply to Sherwin Williams, not 100% sure.
Thanks for the tip on the sale. We’re planning on painting the new baby’s room this coming weekend and knowing about sales helps a lot.
I do have a word of caution on the basement, however. When deciding on flooring (you mentioned carpet) consider that basements flood. Even if it’s never happened to you, with enough rain it might. I know from experience.
After washing (TSP or phosphate-free-TS(P) solutions are usually recommended) and patching, make sure you re-prime the patched spots.
The paint people at Home Depot are hacks. They mismade my paint, which I found out about too late, as I had already applied it to the wall. Then they balked when I asked for a refund. I had to buy more paint to cover over their mistake, and all they could say was, “Sir, this can is empty.” I got my money back, but what morons…
I understand what you mean but at least try to understand two things:
1) They don’t mismake anything, they just have the computer enter in the dyes for them. If you want to complain to someone, complain to the manufacturer for not formulating it correctly.
2) You brought back an empty can and claimed it was mis-mixed? While I understand you can’t tell it was mismade if it’s off by just a little bit and it’s the first can, but at least put yourself in their shoes.
I don’t own HD stock or have any friends at Home Depot or anything, it’s just that I can understand why they’d be skeptical.
You brought back an empty can and expected your money back? They gave it back because they didn’t want you to make a scene,not because they were in the wrong. You sound like an entitled brat. They gave you your way after you used their product up and you still insult them.
Excellent response Jade. You nailed this guy right on! I don’t think I would have been quite so generous in dealing with Mr.Million $ to my name.
If he manages to buy and use products without paying for them, it is no wonder he has at least 1 million dollars!
Has anyone had HD calculate their room size to get the appropriate amount of paint, and then end up with WAY too much?
We took our measurements in for 3 rooms. They did the math and said we’d need 5 gallons for one coat. We painted 2 coats AND it was over a textured surface (panelling). We have nearly 2 gallons left, which is$40-50 I could still have in my wallet! Unfortunately it’s in a 5-gal container, so I think it will be even harder to get them to take it back. They also overestimated on primer, but luckily that was a 5-gal plus 2 1-gallon cans, and we returned the 2 cans. We’ll use the rest of the primer (about 2 gallons left of that as well) somewhere else.
Do I have a reasonable complaint with them? Does this happen often?
you find the SQ FT= perimeter x ceiling height, gallon in pastel base does about 350-400 sq ft, less for darker color
Just wanted to clear up a couple of things in this article. Behr Paint is not Home Depot paint. The Behr branded paint is SOLD exclusively at HD but is not owned by HD. Behr Paint is a subsidiary of Masco, a large holding company. Behr’s interior flat enamel, satin and semi gloss have all been rated #1 by Consumer Reports for 4 years in a row. Behr is great paint! Compare it to any of the other more expensive paints and you are really getting a good deal. The reason Behr Paint is so white is because of the high quality pigments they use to construct the paint, mainly TiO2 (Titanium Dioxide). The grey tint you get from other paints comes from the clay, talk and silica they use as the primary pigment. There is a huge cost difference in these pigments, TiO2 is about $1.60 a pound and the other are around $.07 a pound. I hope this helped!
Behr may not be owned by the Home Depot but it is their brand of choice dating back to the early store beginnings. Behr is great paint but the new Glidden line which is $2 cheaper will cover just as well as Behr Paint and has just as much TiO2 for whiteness. The purer the white the better chance the colors will match properly. Also, Behr paint is not exclusive to Home Depot only the Behr Premium Plus Brand. They do produce and market a product called Behr Expressions sold in other areas. It would not make since for any manufacturer to place all of their eggs in one basket.
Behr no longer makes the Expressions paint and they no longer have independent outlets. They have exclusively with Home Depot.
Go over to LOWES. The paint selection is better,thay match any color and have much more color selection for interior and exterior paint. Valspar (American Tradition) has been around for 200 yrs.
TIP OF THE DAY: When painting with a paint brush, tape around the bottom of the brush, go up around 1/2 -3/4 inches onto the bristles. After done painting remove the tape and the base of the brush remains clean so all you have to do is clean the top of the brush.
I went to Lowes to color match a Behr red color swatch. It is a bold, bright red, called Edgy Red. I wanted two gallons their Valspar Signature Paint in an satin finish. The paint expert there told me that it would take at least 10 coats to achieve the color. I heard that Valspar Signature paint has primer and paint mixed together. I find it strange that would take 10 coats. I was hoping for 2 or 3 coats.
Any home tv channel show will tell you that getting reds just right takes multiple coats. As for primer, if you get it separately, make sure it is tinted the same color as the paint so you can use fewer coats.
GREAT TIP: Get one of theose $3 Shur-Line edgers (Google it) available in lots of places and use it instead of having to tape stuff on. Works great whenever a surface makes a 90 degree angle with another (corners, windows, where walls and ceilings meet, around doorframes…etc.). You save a lot of prep time not having to tape everything off. And often makes a cleaner line than when using tape.
I would like to agree with a number of the points here:
-Use good brushes (like ~$10-15 each, they give a better finish, and they last longer)
-Cut in, but tape also if you are unsure of your skills. The key is not to go crazy and think that just because you taped you can slap the paint all over the place. A layer of paint from the wall onto the tape is the reason that it pulls the paint off the wall. If you are careful, and just use the tape as a second defense, you should be fine.
-Any paint store should be able to match any color (like in the Lowes commercial, just bring in a color you want, even a paint chip from another store) if they can’t, I’d consider going somewhere else.
-As far as I know, HD does not give a discount to people who just open an account, from what I’ve gathered, you have to have an actual commercial credit account with them to qualify for any “in the trade” discounts. However, SW and many of the smaller hardware stores do have this “in the trade” system.
-this brings me to an additional point, try to avoid places like HD, patronize your local hardware stores and lumber yards when possible. Particularly with things like paint, the local hardware store is a much richer bed of experience (usually), is usually better about matching anything. Look for ones that don’t just sell the products of their parent company (e.g. an ACE hardware that only sells ACE paint) I prefer Pratt & Lambert paint – great coverage and scrubbability, even with their satin finishes.
-Pat
I have been in the paint business for 14 years, as a store manager, a regional sales representative and now am in charge of architectural services for my company.
The majority of the information in the article and comments is wrong.
To make colors, tints are added not dyes. Paint is not mismade, or mismatched but it is referred to as mistinted.
Any color can be matched. For a perfect match, allow them to start with the computer, but make sure they check the color with their and your eyes. Have them do corrections until acceptable. (Some Home Depot, Lowe’s and hardware stores will not have the expertise to do this effectively, for the best matches use a real paint store, they do this everyday all day). Color matches are a pain and take years of experience to do them perfectly and quickly.
Never allow a store to tint someone else color from a color formula developed for the other store. It will never work correctly. Every manufacturer uses different tints, different measurements of those tints and different bases. In most cases it won’t be off a little it might be green instead of red.
It is accurate that higher quality paint will have higher loads of TiO2 and that this pigment is more expensive. However, it disingenuous to say Behr has better paint that Sherwin Williams (I do not work for SW). Sherwin Williams has 6 different main interior lines of paint, not including numerous specialty lines. What line is it being compared to? ProMar 700. Well, ProMar 400, ProMar 200, Super Paint and Duration are all better. I would be hard pressed to say anything you could buy at Home Depot would be better than SW’s Super Paint, PPG’s Manor Hall or Benjamin Moore’s Accolade. Comparing apples to apples is hard even for professional painting contractors.
Real painting contractors do not use Home Depot. For the best advice and best paint go to where they do business in your area. Call one of them for a “quote” and ask what paint they use.
I also laugh when people say Pratt and Lambert is better than Sherwin Williams. SW owns P&L. They also own MAB, Mautz, and numerous others. The paint world has been consolidating for a long time. Do not get to hung up on brand names.
Unless you are a professional painter and you want nice crisp “cut” lines use tape. It takes years to perfect and crisp “cut” line using only a brush. After placing the tape into position run a putty knife across it. This will seal the tape down to make sure paint doesn’t seep in underneath. When removing the tape, remove it either while it is still wet, or wait 4-6 hours. Always pull the tape away at a 180 degree angle to itself. If the paint is pulling away from the wall still, use a putty knife or “olfa” knife to score the gap between the tape and wall. This will leave a very crisp cut line and a perfect paint job.
One commenter above stated that paint with Titanium additives is more scrubbable and durable and gives twice the coverage. Almost all paint contains some amount of Titanium Dioxide. It is the primary hiding pigment. Due to its expense, manufacturers try to use as little as possible and will use extender pigments instead (clay, calcium carbonate and talc). Products with high quantities of Titanium Dioxide tend to hide better, but the Titanium Dioxide itself does not affect the durability or scrubbability of the coating. The resin or binder affects these properties. The higher the sheen of the product (flat, eggshell, stain, semi-gloss, and gloss) the more resin is in the formula and the better the product will perform. So in the same line of product, for instance SW’s Duration, the semi-gloss will out-perform the flat. Also some resins offer different capabilities.
WHAT MAKES A PAINT GUY A “PROFESIONAL?” YOU FELLOWS HAVE DEGREES IN PAINTING? DO YOU ACTUALLY GO TO SCHOOL AND LEARN THE TRADE? OR HAVE YOU SIMPLY BEEN PAINTING “ALL YOUR LIFE”…I HIRED A “PROFESSIONAL” AND HE REFUSED TO PUT MY CHOICE OF COLOR ON MY WALLS…SO I FIRED HIM! HIS IDEA OF WHAT BELONGS IN OUR PART OF THE WORLD IS SIMPLY HIS OPINION SO I PAINTED IT MYSELF.
“Real Paint contractors” are truly wasting their own profits by purchasing from factory paint locations. The paints are more expensive and not open long hours and most weekends. Factory paint store paints are carried at Home Depot locations. ICI Paint is Glidden Paint. Marketing and brand names sometimes mis-lead consumers unintentionally.
I can tell you are an excellent paint expert! I also have 14 years in the business and I want to say, you do know you’re paint! Another reason why people need to go to REAL paint stores for paint advice!
Sheen is not a product of the amount of resin but a result of how fine the raw material in the paint is ground prior to manufacture.
thank you for this banter, ive been reading all the comments on behr and i have to say ive worked at SW and BM and get disater story after disater story, mostly due to lack of knowledge. And to Pat we do have to graduate from a very long training program before we are allowed to sell paint, there are many reasons why it could have been recommended that you not use your color choice, just saying.
Try using Fine Paints of Europe-it’s twice the quality of any of the paints that have been talked about. If you ever use it you will never paint with anything else again.
Most of the paints sold in Europe are manufactured bt ICI Paints, now known as Akzo Nobel Paints. These paints can be sold at any Home Depot location under the Glidden Premium Brand.
Matt, as a professional I would be curious to know what you think of Microblend Technologies (www.microblendtechnologies.com). They make many grades of interior and exterior paint in 3000+ colors on demand from 5 or so homogeneous components and have a patented process to match paint better than anyone in the industry. A 1 gallon bucket of paint can be dispensed in under 60 seconds… and a different machine at a different location can make the same exact paint, with the *exact* tint within 60 seconds and you would not be able to tell the difference between the two. I think I see a revolution coming. An entire paint store within a 200-400 sq ft area (reducing stocked inventory by a factor of 10. Check out the demo on their site.
Mr. Anonymous – where can you buy the Microblend paint?
I paid a pretty penny for the top of the line Valspar semi-gloss paint. For whatever reason all five gallons (3 differant colors) bubbled when rolled onto my walls. I have painted many many gallons of paint on job sites–using cheaper paints and have never had this happen. Does anyone know what causes these bubbles? And the main reason I used Valspar was because they have an awesome website where you can paint virtual rooms and come up with great color combos.
Time saving tip: if using tape, make sure it doesn’t pull the paint off that is underneath it. I learned the hard way. I taped the ceiling of my room and when I went to pull it up, but chunks of paint and plaster was coming off with it. The house is old and who knows when the ceiling was done last, but it left me with big chunks all the way around the room. I LUCKILY was able to match the paint on the ceiling and did not have to paint the whole thing. What a mission.
I bought some Behr paint at one HomeDepot store three days ago and asked them to “double pigment” it, like I’ve done at numerous stores for the past three decades. It covered amazingly well in one single coat.
I went today to another HomeDepot store and asked for “double pigment” paint and he said that he couldn’t do that because “there would be so much tin in it that it would never dry”. It seemed strange to me and I asked why I’d been doing it all these years, including from Home Depot and he shrugged & mumbled something about being “lucky” or something like that. I have now painted the trim and a door three times and I’m waiting for it to dry so I can paint it the fourth time.
I called the “acting store manager” and when I explained it to her, she said she didn’t know anything about mixing paints but that the paint guy is “pretty sharp”.
So, I’m sitting here typing this message while my paint is drying and the “sharp guy” and the “sharp manager” don’t seem all that sharp to me at the moment. I had intended to do about 5 other projects, not the same project 5 times.
So, anyone know why the sharp guy at HomeDepot can’t double pigment my paint?
Each tint base of paint is made to take a certain amount of pigment and still perform well. The pigment itself is made to NOT dry in any reasonable amount of time (otherwise it would dry in the tint dispensers), but instead relies on the paint drying “around” the pigment particles. So if you’re using a tint base that can take 5 ounces of pigment, and your double formula totals 4 ounces, you’re fine. If your double formula totals 8 ounces, you’re playing with fire.
If your color is an off white, doubling the pigment is only producing a placebo effect. In 128 ounces of paint, you’ve gone from perhaps 1/12th of an ounce of pigment added to 1/6 of an ounce. If it’s taking 3+ coats to cover a similar color, I’d be looking at the quality of the paint, the quality of the tools you’re using, the weather (too hot, too cold or too humid will make you put on a much thinner coat) or some other variable.
some people make me sick. in my books, whoever posted this is a theif, no better than the lowly criminals who steal from home depot. to go into a store as a consumer/do it yourselfer and “fake” information to set up an account to gain a discount that you do not deserve and did not earn. downright pathetic. i feel sorry for those working at home depot whos bonus checks get a little smaller because of criminals like you.
to sigel:
the associate that mixed your paint may or may not have known what he was talking about. it depends on the color, was it very dark or rich? because paint CAN be ruined by too much tint, and there is only so much room in a can of paint to add tint. since darker colors require more tint, a double tint would either not fit in the can, or ruin the quality of your paint. if its a lighter color that has a smaller amount of tint, then no problem, double tint would work great!
oh and p.s. you were right, the ammount of tint in paint has nothing to do with the dry time, or very little anyways, his arguement was invalid.
Actually, the pigment will affect the dry time. Pigment that goes into paint is designed not to dry — otherwise it would dry in the tint machine. A base designed to take 12 ounces of colorant will also be designed to DRY with 12 ounces of colorant. A base designed to take 1 ounce of colorant will NOT be designed to dry with 12 ounces.
Room in the can, however, makes no difference. If it did, you could always remove some paint before tinting or throw it all into a bigger can.
You can never remove paint from a can before tinting. It is never allowed due to hazmat regulations that paint stores must follow. If you pour paint out before tinting, you don’t know how much base is precisely removed. Color formulas are determined base on a precise quantity of base.
I went to the other home depot with a “regular” paint person instead of a “really sharp” person and she mixed the paint, double pigment, PERFECTLY!
Worked like a charm just like every other time I’ve asked for this to be done for the past 30+ years.
Just need to contradict Mrs.Groovy. Leaving masking tape overnight will not prevent paint from pulling off the wall with the tape. In fact it’s just the opposite. You want to pull the tape while the paint is still “tacky” not completely dry or too wet. As far as putting in bags overnight she is right. You won’t have to worry about getting all the air out if you put it in the freezer. Just allow yourself 20 minutes or so to thaw before going at it again. Also just a tip to those planning on painting horizontal lines, buy Frog Tape or you’ll shoot yourself later because as good as blue painters tape is, paint will still bleed though.For vertical lines blue is fine. Unfortunately Home Depot doesn’t sell Frog Tape with paint lock technology. At least not the one by my house. I was too lazy to drive to Lowes. Now I have to do my lines all over again.
Home Depot used to sell Frog Tape, then they dropped it over a quality issue and gripes from 3M (who makes blue tape). I was told that another company had bought out Frog Tape from from the inventor in ’08 and tried to tinker with the adhesive, as a result it doesn’t lock paint like it used to. The best paint tape I have used with paint lock tech. is called Bloc-It.
Hello Matt, Kathy, Nate, 2cents, and everyone,
How about opinions on these 2-in-1 paints?
[e.g., Behr Premium Plus Ultra; SW Duration]
Do Low/No VOC paints work as well as others?
Are Alkyd paints preferred for the Exterior?
All comments appreciated!
Behr 2 in 1 is the best there is! If you don’t want to have to coat and re-coat…Spend the money and get ‘er done quick! Do it once! Do it right!
-First of all, Yes there are paint programs in some universities. I got my BS degree from Eastern Michigan University in polymers and coatings. And yes, I did watch paint dry.
-Never use Alkyds as an exterior top coat. They get brittle and flake off (eventually). And, the fade resistance is terrible compared to acrylics. Alkyd primers on the other hand are the way to go.
-If you’re paying $1.60 lb for TiO2, you are a small player. But if you can get extender pigments for 7 cents, you have to be digging it out of your back yard.
-If you are painting a bright red or yellow that is low hiding, use the appropriate monochromatic grey tinted primer (which lines up with the color selected) as the base coat. The store rep should now what this means. Then top coat. Any color will hide in 2 coats this way.
-Paint and Primer in one is a marketing gimmick. If it blocked tannin stains or stuck to metal, I’d be impressed. Read the label. It has so many restrictions for use it’s ridiculous.
Drywall primer is nothing more than a very cheap eggshell or flat paint. You use an $8 a gallon primer for the first coat, then $30 gallon paint for the second coat to save cost. Why in the world would you put two coats of $35 paint on a wall instead??? It doesn’t make any sense at all.
Face it. You weren’t going to buy a primer anyways, so just put on two coats of $20 paint. Save some money, and still get the look you want.
Also, did you notice that there are now 14 or so colorants used at Depot instead of 12? The other 2 colorants are high strength colorants (the red is dirtier and bluer than the standard) that are added to only the Behr paints in depot.
Any extra hiding comes from this new stronger, darker colorant; nothing to do with paint and primer in one.
If you mixed a gallon of good paint and a gallon of primer, you’d just end up diluting the good paint and messing it all up.
-These days Low VOC and No VOC are as good as high VOC paints in terms of durability. Propylene glycol does make rolling out paint a pleasure. The No VOC’s are close, but not quite there yet in terms of feel.
Also, with high VOC paint, if you leave it in your garage in the winter you can still use it when it thaws. With low VOC’s they turn to cottage cheese.
- When you ask for double pigment, what you’re doing is asking for a darker color. Instead of pointing to one color and saying I want this with double pigment, just point to the darker one beneath it and ask for that color. That way you won’t confuse anyone with your request.
-Yes, high levels of colorant does slow down drying. I use a timed drying machine to run this test. If you add to much you can touch the walls weeks later and it will still be tacky… Had that happen with a pre-tinted floor paint we sold 25 years ago… not good… replaced a lot of carpets after recalling it.
-If you think that one paint brand is better than all the rest than you are an idiot.
Like the one guy stated, every company has multiple lines and brands to fit a specific need (except maybe Behr), and the products that line up on the same tier compete and usually win either because one brand was spec’d or one brand was cheaper. One brand might have an advantage with one thing, but the other brand has an advantage somewhere else.
We found something else out; People who used cheap paint all the time, rated cheap paint better than quality paint and vice versa. If you like something, it’s because it’s familiar, not because it is necessarily better.
-Unless of course you pick up some paint that has been sitting on the shelf a while. The bubbles in the one post is foam. Defoamers in paints can sometimes lose efficacy when they are heated or aged. So, you end up with dried foam all over your wall. Older paints have a tendency to skin in the can also. Take a picture, send it in, complain… maybe even in an email to the CEO, the situation will be resolved quickly and for free. Seen it happen many times.
-I think microblend has been losing steam for years. Sounded cool initially, there were some problems, then people stopped talking about it. But, who knows…
-Matt did a good job of cleaning up a lot of the bad information in these posts. That’s it for my two cents.
I went to a Home Depot recently and found 2 paint salespeople who didn’t seem to know much about painting. I asked the young ex military woman which sheen she would recommend for painting woodwork and her answer was that the varnishes were in the next aisle. After much questioning, I realized that she was like many men who do not believe that natural wood should be painted. I finally had to tell her that I would read the info on the can and make my own decision. I purchased a 2 gallon container of ultra white ceiling paint and was told they could not tint it because there would not be room in the can. Is this true? The suggestion was that I just add some brown paint since I wanted an off white or cream. I wasn’t really happy with the service and hope the paint works well since I haven’t used Behr before. I really like Marthe Stewart colors and have had good results with the paint.
I think BEHR paint is Horrible I have tried it twice like a fool once should have been enough runs so bad and really does not cover as well as Benjamin Moore right now I have a big mess to clean up which I never had with BM NEVER NEVER again will I spend my hard earn money on that garbage
Behr is not a Home Depot brand.
RE: Microblend
Some Costco warehouses have it. I thought it was listed in the Store Locator, but I just looked up a Costco near me that I know has it and it wasn’t listed online. I called them and they still have it so go figure.
I got a gallon of white exterier primer and white exterior arcryic to touch up the little outside wood trim that I have and I am VERY pleased with it. Extremly easy to work with, looks fantastic and the price is hard to beat.
I’m looking forward to doing some interior painting with it in the near future as the builder of my house did souch a lousy job spraying, towards the ceilings in some rooms if I get up on a ladder you can almost see the drywall
So to be safe I will probably just prime everything then paint. Stupid lazy builders who don’t watch their stupid lazy sub contractors….
Used Behr basement waterproofing paint in basement. It adhered nicely but in many small spots it is blistering.
I scraped off this paint and applied Behr acid etcher per directions, on these spots, washed it off, waited for walls to dry, repainted with same and still the same bubbling.
I don’t want to sheet rock the walls. What are my options. My preference at this point is to find a better quality paint. Any recommendations?
any suggestions?
Another idea for my same problem.
Would this work to stop the bubbling?
Scrape off the Behr paint in spots of bubbling. Chip off the concrete below the removed paint. Coat the the chipped areas with a crystalizing sealer like Concrete Sealer X-2 by
Stone gate technology (same stuff as Radon Seal Xypex, etc this stuff is used for neg side waterproofing) Re-coat area with a topping cement. Wait a month to cure. Repaint with the same Behr basement waterproofing paint.
We just used Behr’s paint with primer, and it’s CRAP! It took 3 coats of a dark green to cover a light green, and it chips if you breathe on it! We prepped the walls and gave it plenty of time to dry. It’s been 10 days and it just keeps chipping at the smallest touch. Anyone have any suggestions? Is there something we can seal it with, or is it back to square one? HELP!
sounds like you put a latex over a oil
Call the number on your paint can and tell them what happened. There was either something wrong with your prep or the paint, either way they will help you get to the bottom of it and give you advice.
BEHR paints sucks !!! need to be sold for $0.99 Do not waste your time using Behr paints
I just got done painting and washing up using Behr on a new closet.
I hate behr paint, the scent is nasty, it smells like foul feet, I’ll never us it again.
I just got done painting and washing up using Behr on a new closet.
I hate behr paint, the scent is nasty, it smells like foul feet, I’ll never use it again.
99 percent of paint problems lie in the prep and surface conditions and of course the skill of the applicator. Paint is manufactured under strict
quality controls and tested by lab techs. Problem is most people that DIY dont know there a$$ from a hole in the ground.
I’m a bit confused – does this mean if I take some Glidden base paint off the shelf and select a Glidden paint chip in a specific color, HD is just going to mix a similar-looking Behr tint into the Glidden base?
Kate, the colorants or tints used the the paints are all the same whether used in Behr, Glidden, ICI, Sherwin Williams, etc. The thing that changes is the base paints that the different companies use.
i bought the 2 in 1 behr and the 2 in one part isn’t so good. i sanded, then painted a test area, after 4 weeks (latex curing time) it still scratches off under my nail. this is on wood paneling.
it works fine for my wallpaper paneling, but i bought a 5 gallon bucket to do several rooms and will have to now buy additional primer (for which case i would have bought a cheaper paint if i have to use a primer too). live and learn i guess