Kinda OT

Just wondering if anyone else has had the same experience.

In the forties my dad was a painter. When they came out with Spred Satin a rep came by the hospital where my dad was painting (Okay, the Veteran's Hospital in Poplar Bluff, MO). He painted a 6-inch patch of a newspaper with Spred Satin and let it dry. Then he put a wire brush attachment in a power drill and ran it on the newspapaer. The newspaper shredded except where the Spred Satin was, which was unhurt and stood up to the abrasion. Couldn't read the newsprint through one coat of paint either.

When he told me the story forty years later, he was still impressed by that demonstration. Water-based paint was new in the forties and most guys figured it was inferior. Wrong.

I had the same experience once about fifteen years ago. Using a reputable regional brand which I had used often with great results over the previous ten years, I wasn't able to get light pink (don't ask---not my house) flat latex to cover off-white flat latex evenly with three coats. I was painting a rental house for a very picky general contractor/owner who lived several hours' drive away, using the specific paint he instructed me to purchase. For prep I hand sanded all surfaces lightly to break the glaze, washed with a strong TSP solution, and rinsed with clean water. I've used that method successfully for years, and I've also seen what probably amounts to square miles of latex paint applied successfully with far less prep than that.

The results were so bad, and my experience and competence were such a given, that we got the paint company involved to try to make them stand behind their product. They sent out a tech rep who, not surprisingly, claimed that it was my equipment rather than the paint that was at fault. The fact that I had been using the same equipment for ten years (and went on to use it for at least another ten) with no similar problems didn't strike the tech rep as relevant. The tech rep gave us a bunch of high quality roller covers and, sure enough, I was able to get good coverage with only two more coats, for a total of five. There was never any question in the minds of those of us on the consumer side that the paint was total sh!t, and that that's what the tech rep was full of, too. Bad experience.

On the subject of Glidden paint, about twenty years ago I bought about five gallons of Glidden flat white latex in quart cans for $0.25 each from a regional chain store called Pay 'n Pak that was going out of business. It was so bad for coverage that the only thing I could use it for was drywall primer. Most of it never got used at all and, amazingly, I actually lost money on that purchase,

All the best, Stan

I have heard alot of good things about Benjamin Moore, but no personal experience. Never heard anything special about Glidden, one way or the other. Behr is a cheap line of paints from what I've seen and heard.

Charles

Sometimes a tinted primer helps, coordinate it with the finish color.

How did you apply it, with a roller ?

What texture/finish was it, flat, pearl or gloss ?

I find with painting walls, that it's best to start at chest level, work both ways until the end of the pass, top and bottom, then roll out over to the next pass, overlap over the previous pass just little, roll out any ridges of wet paint, (you get those when you press to hard against the wall) reload the roller cover in the pan and repeat. The roller being saturated when you start in the middle, gives you the best coverage where you will see it most, eye level, so I always start each pass around there, closer to the floor and up above eye level, it is much harder to pick up defects in most sight lines, but that is also dependent on the illumination and the kind of light in any given room. Wall sconces really magnify any unwanted surface texture, like when a cheap roller cover leaves strands with skinned over paint that sat too long uncovered in the paint pan, those light fixtures will show all the raised specks.

Problem with the paints now is that they dry too fast, no time to fool with it, just have to apply thin coats, move along until it's done, paint quality can effect the coats required, especially on a new substrate like gypsum wall board.

Fresh gypsum type wall board sure will soak up some paint, tinted primer, sometimes it is less expensive to do the multiple coats in the tinted primer, has to be good quality paint all around or it may not give satisfactory coverage.

I just did a job and the colors were off, I use a long time paint supplier, who really knows paint, mixing, matching etc., he checked the colors and knew that the base was off, had to swap 5 gallons out. You could always have them check to see if there is a problem with the paint, or it's just poor quality paint.

I've done a lot of painting although I hate painting. When we got married, my wife understood that "I" build and "She" paints.

Yeah, I'm not a big fan of painting myself, but I've done a lot of it lately working on my own, for regular customers and others.

I'm not a fan of the big box retailers when it comes to paint, especially for matching or custom colors, I'm glad this supplier is still in business because the knowledge and service has proven to be very important on a few jobs. I've used Behr paint, the exterior gloss on stair bannisters, rails, trim and sills in a big apt I did a few years ago and it's held up with a nice gloss in high wear areas, was a friends place so I've seen how it performs, I'd use that ext. gloss again, but for most contract jobs I use Benjamin Moore super spec., it's one down from their top quality paint, I've had decent luck with it so far, coverage is good, applies well, but even with the gloss finishes, the application seems to become harder, dry heated air in the wintertime and many other conditions can cause problems, top of the line paint, roller covers, and I still got raised specks on the steel doors on a recent job, sometimes you can't win them all when it comes to painting.

Good luck.