<p>I am painting the interior of my house and the painting contractor mentioned different paint grades…</p>
<p>What are the differences in these paint grades? Contractor’s paint grade? Premium paint grade?</p>
<p>Which wears better and longer?</p>
<p>Worth price differences?</p>
<p>Here is a link to paint grades explained for BM products</p>
<p>[Painting</a> Contractor - Benjamin Moore Paint Grades Explained](<a href=“http://www.paintersource.com/Product-Information/Benjamin-Moore-Paint-Grades-Explained.html]Painting”>http://www.paintersource.com/Product-Information/Benjamin-Moore-Paint-Grades-Explained.html)</p>
<p>I have found that cheap paint usually means more coats. I’m getting a Behr Premium paint that is a primer/paint. It’s expensive and folks have told me you still need two coats, but in the places I’ve seen, it looks great.</p>
<p>Have used Behr in finished basement,laundry room…Benjamin Moore just about every where else in house…</p>
<p>Just had this conversation with my sister last night… (*dstark, are you my sister?? 
* ) Our painter insisted on using the best, and it was EXPENSIVE!! $50+ per gallon? He used Aura, from Benjamin Moore, which they describe as:
</p>
<p>Personally, I tend to go with the cheapest available, and I have used cheap paint with good results, but honestly, with the money you pay a painter, or the labor you pay to do it yourself, the difference between $19.99 per gallon and $55 per gallon in the long run is not significant, so I say go with the best.</p>
<p>p.s. painters did half the house, we (mostly my wife) did the rest. She used a cheaper paint in the powder room and had to do FIVE coats to get coverage.</p>
<p>The labor cost for two coats is prohibitive. I’d buy the best paint on the market and do only one coat. Just finished a 2400 sqft house painting job, inside and out. Paint cost probably is only $1000 one coat, but the labor will cost 3-4 times as much and I was the “general contractor”…</p>
<p>I think we are doing two coats for various reasons…we ripped out and replaced a lot of drywall…</p>
<p>I am inclined to use a better quality paint …if it looks better and lasts longer…</p>
<p>But…
If it is just one of those marketing tools…</p>
<p>We were thinking of using Benjamin Moore…</p>
<p>NJers…if I am your sister…I am in really big trouble.:)</p>
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<p>If you are painting raw dry wall, its always two coats, one for the primer and the other color.</p>
<p>Do one coat of primer then one coat of a premium quality paint and check out the results. I’ve done this over previous paint as well as new drywall and it’s worked out well. The primer is less expensive that the premium paint although sometimes I put on 2 coats of primer if I the first coat appeared to get soaked in to the new wall quite a bit. I haven’t tried the so-called “primer paints” where the primer’s mixed in with the paint since it really didn’t bother me to do 2 coats - but I did it myself and I’m cheap labor. </p>
<p>I used Behr (Home Depot) paint last time which usually rates well in consumer mags. I’m sure there are other good or even better paints available but I think contractors tend to buy paint at stores where they have an account, can get a good deal, and regularly do business (and know all the people working there, get free coffee and donuts, etc.) so I wouldn’t take their word as gold since I doubt they actually regularly test all major paint brands. I’m not convinced there’s a huge difference between the premium lines of the various bigger name companies (but I’m not an expert either).</p>
<p>Prior to Behr I uses Sears Best paint (only purchased when it was on sale or else it was a ripoff) and it was an excellent paint and also rated very well in the consumer mags but I think HD and Lowes have pretty much shut down the paint department at most Sears stores.</p>
<p>I work in the paint industry. (Not for a paint manufacturer, but a supplier of raw materials in paint) </p>
<p>For the most part, you get what you pay for. A paint that costs $50/gallon really <em>is</em> better than a paint that
costs $20/gallon. I wouldn’t want a contractor- grade paint anywhere in my house. The premium paint will have better stain resistance, burnish resistance, and scrub resistance. In short, it will look better for longer. </p>
<p>If you are hiring a painter, the cost differential between good/cheap paint will be small compared to the total job cost. The painter will probably have one or two favorite brands of paint, and you should go with his/her recommendations because he/she will be accustomed to the “feel” of those paints and will do a better job applying those paints than a paint that is unfamiliar. </p>
<p>My advice is to get a few estimates. Once you choose a painting contractor, tell them what you want the end result to look like, then step back and let the professional work out the details.</p>
<p>I’ve always used Benj. Moore Regal. It’s held up well and I like the colors that are available.</p>
<p>Go with the better grade. Fewer coats = less labor, less mess, etc. Make sure you pick the right finish, too (eggshell, semi-gloss, etc.).</p>
<p>Personally, on my white indoor walls, I use a coat of Kilz and one coat of super-duper HD paint. Looks great.</p>
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<p>True that!</p>
<p>Ben Moore paints have never disappointed me. </p>
<p>For primer, use oil based KILZ or Zinsser. (but not over existing latex) Both offer unbeatable specialty products.</p>
<p>I vote for letting the painter pick the grade, but you pay for the paint directly. I would ask how many coats the painter thinks each grade takes. Just in case it hasn’t occured to you 
if you keep some extra you can do touch-ups. My husband walks around with a paint brush every six weeks or so.</p>
<p>Did I miss what happened with your kitchen wall and the water heater, hvac, etc? Did your contractor already do all that???</p>
<p>I had to redo the heating system…new vents…new heater…but I kept the heater and water heater in the same place. The redo cost us 9,000…which isn’t too bad considering…</p>
<p>Of course…it would have been nice to know that we had a heating problem in the first place. The heating vents in the townhouse went to nowhere. It was kind of hard to heat the place up. :)</p>
<p>The kitchen walls were not weight bearing. :)</p>
<p>So we opened up the kitchen…the side wall we took out the top 5’ of the wall…and another wall we did the same so we now have a view outside and we got rid of the galley look of the kitchen…There is probably a name for these walls that only go up about 3 or 4 feet from the floor…but I can’t remember what it is. :)</p>
<p>This project still has another 2 months or more to go…</p>
<p>The painter comes highly recommended but said his bid included construction grade paint
and not premium…and it would cost a little more using a premium paint. I had no idea what he was talking about. </p>
<p>The painting contractor I used on my last place was a little more reasonable in price…but I could not get him to get his people to work on time. He said it was more efficient for him if his crew did not show up some days. One day…I sent him a text saying I am “fu… pis@@@ that your crew did not show up.”</p>
<p>The painting contractor was shocked…I always treat everybody with respect and I treated him with respect up until that point…but I was under time pressure. The house was going to go for sale in 4 days…and the paint job wasn’t finished…and I repeatedly told the painting contractor I had time issues. I gave him weeks to finish the job.</p>
<p>The prior painting contractor is a little afraid of me…I am a little too volatile for him. I have had a lot of people work for me…and everybody wants to work for me again including his crews.</p>
<p>So…even though my prior painting contractor’s prices are a little more reasonable…he doesn’t get the $9,000 job. The painting contractor should have been a little less efficient. ;)</p>
<p>Knee wall is the term you are looking for…surprised a painting contractor would quote a price with contractor grade paint, and is your quote 9k? How many sf? Or rooms? Seems awfully high, i recently paid 3k for a front to back 2 story foyer, kitchen,upstairs hallway,breakfast room,back stairway…with BM paint?..had a quote of 2k for my 2500 sf basement, did it myself, as i actually enjoy painting, and do a job equal or better then most pro’s…they are amazed at the finished product i do,though since i am retired,i have loads of time</p>
<p>We have an old home and slowly restored throughout. Started with Behr and learned a great deal over the years. One diff in higher grade is that the colors and whites/lights tend to stay true longer and the coating stays to its thicker, like-new appearance. On woodwork, it retains the level of gloss you got in the first weeks, after it set. For DIY, better quality can also have less “spray back” (the spray that covers your hands and arms.) I found the better quality route (also Benj Moore, on recc of the housepainter) is worth it and avoids that nagging feeling in a few years that you need to re-do. We also generally do a 2nd color coat on walls.</p>
<p>But, the trick is in the prep. We always prime (on raw wallboard, sometimes two coats; on existing walls (old horsehair plaster,) used Kilz, (which now has barely any odor.) On woodwork/trim, you have to paint the color within x hours of the primer (or something changes in the chemistry.) Lightly sand, between. If you delay the top coat, lightly sand before that. A lot of work, but worth it. You get your own rhythm going.</p>
<p>I have zero inclination to try the combo primer/paint in the public rooms. And, if I were paying a contractor, I would not skimp on the paint quality becasue of the other labor costs.</p>
<p>the more I read these posts…the more I am surprised about the contractor’s grade paint…
I never asked for that.</p>
<p>Like i said we were planning on using BM paint…we did before on our last place.
The place is 1900 sq ft…and there is some sheet rock patching…and texturing of the walls that has to be done…plus…the job includes some exterior work…</p>
<p>dstark: the vents literally went nowhere? disconnected? Your re-do sounds very nice.</p>
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<p>since I don’t know how to send texts I tend to use this language IRL… kind of shocking to my contractors, since up to that point I seem like a pretty normal southern lady, though perhaps then not a huge surprise when I let them go. I have fired 3 contractors in 22 months. Before this I never fired anyone in my life. I sit around moaning with friends over what I did wrong to get in such a situation, but really don’t think it is my fault. Right now the roofing guy is owed $2000 if he just comes back to complete some trim work. I wouldn’t pay him the total amount before the job was completed even though he begged and asked me if he should go down on his knees because he was absolutely desperate for the money. That was 6 weeks ago. He has half a day’s work left max. The roof was supposed to be completed before July 1 - that was, in his words, “absolute worst case scenario” Because we thought he blew through his first installment without actually paying for roofing material, we hired and paid him for some additional work (mid summer) hoping to help him out of that situation. He is young and reminds us of our own kids. It turns out the roof was installed in such a way that the company warranty is voided. But my husband says probably it will still be a <em>lifetime</em> roof since we are mid-50s. He says if we get in a car accident next week it is definitely a lifetime roof.</p>
<p>Right now I am working with retired and/or currently unemployed men in the neighborhood and a couple of unemployed college grads and crossing my fingers.</p>
<p>okay - maybe I should have put all this on that venting thread. :)</p>
<p>edit: this whole project was supposed to take less than a year and now I just hope I see it completed before I die… 30 or 40 years from now.</p>
<p>edit: the painter is the only one who has been on the job from the beginning of the project. We just had eggs and toast for breakfast.</p>
<p>Alh…sounds like a nightmare…</p>
<p>You would think if you hold back some of the money like you have done…there would be some incentive to complete the job.</p>
<p>All the guys I have used have been very good…the roofer I used and the GC I am using now are the best…</p>
<p>I haven’t had to fire anybody.
Firing 3 contractors…echh…
And the length of your project…well let’s just say my wife doesn’t have the patience. :)</p>