Why Quality Paint?

   
Did you know that cheap paint is the most expensive paint you can purchase? Yes, it's absolutely true. There are three components to the quality and the correlating longevity of a paint job. 

1. Is the prep. It's all about the prep, the more prep the better the paint job will look and the longer it will last. 
    

2. Is the labor. The better the painter the better the paint job will look and the longer it will last. 
    

3. Is the paint. Yep, the better the quality of the paint the better it will look and the longer it will last. 

Then why do so many people skimp on the paint? Well, it's simply because we don't know any better. For some reason when you need 4 gallons of paint, saving $5-$10 per gallon just seems to make sense to some people. 

You need to understand that paint is not like buying fashion. The difference between $29.00 Wrangler jeans and $90 Guess jeans is marketing hype, you are buying the Brand, the material and the quality of the product don't vary by much at all. The difference between $19.95 Home Depot Behr paint on sale and $35.00 Benjamin Moore paint is THE PAINT! 

Here is your quick and dirty lessons on paint: the four key ingredients that effect the quality of a paint are: binders, liquids, additives and pigments. Higher-quality paints have more of the most important and more expensive prime pigments, which in the end gives you easier application as well as better color retention and better durability. The better binders help your paint adhere to surfaces better, this makes them more resistant to cracking and peeling.  Additives like mildewicides give paint a specific benefit. Liquids are the carrier that allows you to get the paint from the can to the painting surface. Top quality paints have a greater ratio of solids (pigments and binders) to liquids, but the cheaper paints are more watered down with liquid.

6 real world advantages to using quality paint, that you can actually see

• Better Hiding Qualities - High quality paints cover the old paint job much better, with less work and less retouching required, which can also mean fewer coats.
    

• No Brush Marks or Roller Marks - High quality paints go on much more smoothly then the cheap paints do. Which results in a cleaner and more consistent appearance.
   

• Minimal Splattering - Clean up is much easier with a high quality paint.
    

• Washability - High quality paints have better resistance to dirt and require less maintenance and stay newer looking longer.
    

• Scrubability - Higher quality paints stand up to repeated cleanings without coming off.
    

• Less Burnishing - those nasty shiny marks that you see from rubbing and cleaning, you'll get far fewer of them with a high quality paint.

So resist the temptation to save a few bucks, buy high quality paints from high quality paint manufacturers. Benjamin Moore, Sherwin-Williams, Kelly-Moore and others. 

You're still going to have to do the prep, you're still going to have to do the labor, those won't change, but the difference between cheap paint and quality paint can't be changed by more labor or more prep. You paint job will only be as good as the paint you use.