# Independent Paint Review?



## KPSquared

Ok, so to start, I swear by BM paint.

This mostly has to do with Canada and no acess to SW paint

Recently my parents have started a small interior design/renovation company. (moms a decorator by trade and dad's a very skilled handy man)

Mom was asking me if there is any independent reviews available of paint quality other than Consumer Reports (that seems to favor Behr ****e). She currently has an account with Cloverdale Paint and the people at the BM store treat her like garbage...

She hasn't been that impressed with the cloverdale paint but some guy at Home Hardware started trying to convince her that their paint was worth buying...

So now she wants some kind of independent report that grades the paint. 

I told her to just suck up the abuse of the local BM store and buy their paint but she's having a hard time with that. I'm no expert with paint so I can't really tell her why she should or shouldn't buy other paints... other than I know they are crap.

Anyone help me out here?


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## mattyhabs

I buy about 80 percent of my paint from a BM dealer, but i would walk away in a heartbeat if i thought they treated me badly. And i would never have my mother to shop in a store that dished out abuse. There are way too many quality paint brands to put up with that, although i don't know of any other reviewer of paint besides Consumer reports.

What part of Canada are you in? Any Pratt & Lambert dealers near you?


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## KPSquared

My folks live near Vernon, BC. The nearest Pratt and Lambert dealer is 4 hours away in Vancouver.

All they have in town is Cloverdale, General Paint, and Benjamin Moore. (and then all the big box stores that I constantly advise them to avoid...)

Anyone know anything about General Paint or Cloverdale? They just haven't been that impressed with the Cloverdale line... The General Paint guy made a good pitch to mom this morning why their paint is good... Sounded like he knew what he was talking about. 

Any help is appreciated.


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## Alska101

*bm paint*

sorry but the bm aura paint sucks. hands down. i did a reno where my former boss had us use bm aura in his new reno we did. (thats another story!!!) and he would not use anything else. we went and picked up the paint at the bm dealer i have been to a few of there dealers and the are snobs. free latte but jerks behind the counter and treat you like  we got the paint and the bill was 1900.00 plus gst and pst. and this was for a 900 square foot addition. the guy with me a pro painter of 14years nearly crapped himself. we used it and this is how we applied it we did the trim at the shop with a sprayer. then we painted the rooms spray with a back roll two coats. then we sprayed the doors. we then found the paint was peeling off. like i took a putty knife and ran it up the wall and it can off like butter. this is after 2 weeks to cure. and the trim is the same . the rep:jester: said it was because we did not prime. hehe they say we dont have to prime with aura. :no: he said it is still recommended. thats when i told him we did prime. hehe jerk. 0 use 1!! then he lets us know they are having problems with aura. but all other bm products are ok. :whistling right... we had to fix a hole in the bathroom that had been reno'd years before not by us and painted with bm not aura, and i tried the putty knife and guess what!!! butter. peeled off like nothing.


bm sucks!!!!


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## GrasshopperPete

Pratt and Lambert is Sherwin Williams..

This from wikipedia:

The Paint Stores Segment, known as Sherwin-Williams Paints, was the first section of the company to be established, in 1866. These stores market and sell Sherwin-Williams branded architectural paints and coatings, industrial and marine products, and original equipment manufacturer product finishes and similar items. As of January 1, 2007 the Paint Stores segment operated over 3000 individual paint stores. The Consumer segment develops, manufactures, and distributes various paints, coatings, and related products to third party customers and the Paint Stores segment. Sherwin-Williams is the parent company of other brands such as Duron, M.A.B. Paints, Minwax, Krylon, Purdy, Bestt Liebco, Thompson's WaterSeal, H&C, Cuprinol, Pratt & Lambert, Martin-Senour, Dutch Boy, Easy Living, Weatherbeater, and on August 28, 2007 Sherwin Williams purchased Columbia Paint & Coatings.


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## DeanV

Alska101 said:


> sorry but the bm aura paint sucks. hands down. i did a reno where my former boss had us use bm aura in his new reno we did. (thats another story!!!) and he would not use anything else. we went and picked up the paint at the bm dealer i have been to a few of there dealers and the are snobs. free latte but jerks behind the counter and treat you like  we got the paint and the bill was 1900.00 plus gst and pst. and this was for a 900 square foot addition. the guy with me a pro painter of 14years nearly crapped himself. we used it and this is how we applied it we did the trim at the shop with a sprayer. then we painted the rooms spray with a back roll two coats. then we sprayed the doors. we then found the paint was peeling off. like i took a putty knife and ran it up the wall and it can off like butter. this is after 2 weeks to cure. and the trim is the same . the rep:jester: said it was because we did not prime. hehe they say we dont have to prime with aura. :no: he said it is still recommended. thats when i told him we did prime. hehe jerk. 0 use 1!! then he lets us know they are having problems with aura. but all other bm products are ok. :whistling right... we had to fix a hole in the bathroom that had been reno'd years before not by us and painted with bm not aura, and i tried the putty knife and guess what!!! butter. peeled off like nothing.
> 
> 
> bm sucks!!!!


Something else is going on there than meets the eye. I have used a variety of paints, my fair share of BM (including Aura) and have never seen any paint do that unless it was put over oil or fresh setting drywall compound that had not fully dried (but had cured and been sanded).


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## BC_Painter

KPSquared said:


> My folks live near Vernon, BC. The nearest Pratt and Lambert dealer is 4 hours away in Vancouver.
> 
> All they have in town is Cloverdale, General Paint, and Benjamin Moore. (and then all the big box stores that I constantly advise them to avoid...)
> 
> Anyone know anything about General Paint or Cloverdale? They just haven't been that impressed with the Cloverdale line... The General Paint guy made a good pitch to mom this morning why their paint is good... Sounded like he knew what he was talking about.
> 
> Any help is appreciated.


I live in Kelowna, I use ICI, Cloverdale, General Paint and BM

GP has a decent base line Hi Hide eggshell, and their HP2000 I am impressed with.

They have quite a few specialty products too.

The limited amount I've used Cloverdale has been positive, I swear by Procoat flat for ceilings :thumbup:


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## BC_Painter

As far as BM goes, I really like their collections line including UltiMatte HOWEVER if my rep treated me like crap I'd rarely if ever buy from them.

Service means a lot:thumbsup:


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## Rcon

BC_Painter said:


> I live in Kelowna, I use ICI, Cloverdale, General Paint and BM
> 
> GP has a decent base line Hi Hide eggshell, and their HP2000 I am impressed with.
> 
> They have quite a few specialty products too.
> 
> The limited amount I've used Cloverdale has been positive, I swear by Procoat flat for ceilings :thumbup:


General Paints make great paints, i've been using them for years. 

Regular Hi Hide is good for commercial work and lower middle end new construction, Breeze is better and not much more expensive. HP2000 is great stuff for trimwork etc but their eggshell is quite shiny - the HP2000 Hi Hide is a little duller and tough as nails. Private Estate (also by GP) has one of the best flats i've used - super tough. Again the eggshell in Private Estate is too shiny for my tastes but you could take a hammer to it and hardly scratch the stuff once it's cured. 

Overall, GP makes some of the toughest finishes i've ever found...but their eggshells are too damn shiny. The exception is the Breeze line which is more like a matte finish. 

Para Paints (owned by GP) is a higher end paint, though i'm not sure you'll have it in Vernon, we have it here in Kelowna. It's expensive, and I wouldn't bother with the Premium - use the Para Ultra, good stuff. Good sheens, glides on with a brush, dries fast - but again, it's pricey. 

I've never liked Cloverdale much. 

Hope that helps.


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## BC_Painter

Rcon said:


> General Paints make great paints, i've been using them for years.
> 
> Regular Hi Hide is good for commercial work and lower middle end new construction, Breeze is better and not much more expensive. HP2000 is great stuff for trimwork etc but their eggshell is quite shiny - the HP2000 Hi Hide is a little duller and tough as nails. Private Estate (also by GP) has one of the best flats i've used - super tough. Again the eggshell in Private Estate is too shiny for my tastes but you could take a hammer to it and hardly scratch the stuff once it's cured.
> 
> Overall, GP makes some of the toughest finishes i've ever found...but their eggshells are too damn shiny. The exception is the Breeze line which is more like a matte finish.
> 
> Para Paints (owned by GP) is a higher end paint, though i'm not sure you'll have it in Vernon, we have it here in Kelowna. It's expensive, and I wouldn't bother with the Premium - use the Para Ultra, good stuff. Good sheens, glides on with a brush, dries fast - but again, it's pricey.
> 
> I've never liked Cloverdale much.
> 
> Hope that helps.


I may need to try that private estate matte.

Is it a scrubbable finish like some of the competitors?


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## Rcon

BC_Painter said:


> I may need to try that private estate matte.
> 
> Is it a scrubbable finish like some of the competitors?


It's a flat, and they say it's 'washable', though I have never needed to do so as I put it on ceilings :jester:

Though if it's anything like their eggshell you could wash it with a putty knife. :laughing:


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## Alska101

DeanV said:


> Something else is going on there than meets the eye. I have used a variety of paints, my fair share of BM (including Aura) and have never seen any paint do that unless it was put over oil or fresh setting drywall compound that had not fully dried (but had cured and been sanded).



well the rep said there is problems with aura!! so you say fresh drywall, the drywall was left for two weeks well we where at other jobs. and it was peeling on the trim and doors too, and they where painted at the shop in a spray booth. and the bathroom was done years before by another contractor with bm paint. the new aura was put on by three different guys all with years painting and they all said the same thing "crap paint!!!" there number one complaint was no cut in time the cut in was dry before they rolled and these guys are not slow. also when they sprayed the guy back rolling like 3 feet behind the fresh spray was having a hard time the paint was setting up and tacking to the roller the finish looked like crap and the paint was peeling off on to the roller.

the boss/ho still says bm aura is the best paint. even though it is falling off his walls. if i paid that much for paint 85.00 gal plus tax. i would have to kick my own ass if i paid that much a gal. i guess he just thinks if you pay more you get better paint, (or the guys at the paint dealer said ''here comes a another one thanx goodness there is one born every min'' 

just google aura problems and we are not the only ones. i am not saying all other paint is good, just have had nothing but problems with bm

i did a long time ago use there paint/stain on a fence and it still looks good no problems:clap:. maybe i lucked out.


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