The Right Product For Your Painting Project

Paint is paint, right? Wrong.

While today’s paint is very “one size fits all”, that doesn’t mean that you can simply choose any paint for any project. There is always a best product to accomplish your goals.

When you begin a painting project, there are generally more questions that need answered than you can even think of. “What type of surface are you painting?” “What is on there now?” “How shiny is the surface?” “Do you need to prime it?” “How solid is the existing paint?” “How long do you need this to last?” “What type of abuse is the surface going to take?”

When you walk into a paint store, they should ask you most of these questions. When you have a contractor come to your house to give you an estimate, he will be asking himself most of these questions and hopefully will ask you the rest of them. There is always a right product for your project, and maybe 2 or 3 other options that will work.

Paint technology has come a long way in the last 10 years with the addition of special additives. There are paints that will adhere to almost anything; paints that will help reduce airborne odors, paints that will help with mold and mildew growth, Sherwin-Williams even just released a paint to kill infections such as strep and e. coli in the air.

Paint Touch-Ups

Make sure any time you begin a project you determine exactly what your goals are for a project so that a paint expert can give you the exact paint you need. For instance, if you’re touching up your paint job, you don’t want the thickest paint on the market that will stick to glass; your best option is having the exact same paint as you originally used, second best option is a thin paint that will blend into the wall around it and to dry brush it out into the surrounding area to blend.

Trim and Door Painting

Personally, I am not the greatest painter in the world. I do well, but not as well as the guys on our team. When we replaced the doors and trim in our house last year I used Sherwin-Williams ProClassic Latex. This product dries with a harder enamel film like an oil, and lays down smooth to erase brush strokes and roller marks. Our doors look like they were sprayed, and I still was able to use water to clean up!

Garage Floors

This is one of the biggest problem areas to paint. In Florida we are constantly running into garage floors that a previous homeowner painted and is now peeling, or homeowners that want to cover their bare concrete garage floors with something that looks nicer. You have to use the right product on a garage floor.

Although we don't typically endorse the DIY epoxy floor kits, they are certainly widely available and promoted heavily by the paint and big box stores.  There are several options out there, but the most important thing to look for is that it is rated to resist “hot tire pickup”. If you choose to go this route, the product I would recommend to a diy-er is H&C’s Shieldcrete kit. It’s a 2-part waterbased epoxy system that comes complete with a degreaser, non-skid additive and even decorative flakes. The surface must be clean, dry and ready to accept the coating, but when finished you get a garage floor that looks amazing.

So, whether you’re touching up a hole from your kids playing baseball indoors, replacing your bedroom doors, or creating a garage floor coating that will make your neighbors envious, it’s important to use the right product for the job.

Part of the reason that we are so successful is that we know the availability of products that are on the market and we have seen almost anything you can think of. If you want a second opinion, or to see what the pro’s do, click on the Contact button below or give our office a call at 813-570-8800 or 727-754-9800 and we’ll set up a free estimate.

photo by:  TheBusyBrain / CC BY 2.0