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Our house as I speak is being prepped to be repainted on the exterior. We are keeping the same paint color as we’ve had the past six years.
Our trim is a milk chocolate colored brown, and the old finish had been “gloss“. Our main house color has been & is again going to be in a satin finish.
The lead painter is proposing that we consider having the trim in a satin finish as well, instead of gloss. He says it shows less imperfections in the wood, & is superior with a darker colored trim such as ours.
We need to let them know if we are going to change from gloss to satin by the end of today.
Could we have some quick input on this? Should we change our darker colored trim to a satin finish instead of gloss? Pros? Cons? of doing this change or not?
We think it might “look” better, but priority-wise our main concern is we want to pick the right finish that will not fade more quickly!
Supposedly, full gloss fades less than other kinds of finish.
Supposedly, dark colors show fading the most (makes sense).
Glossier finish (whether paint or varnish) DOES show surface imperfections more than less glossy finishes do.
Given the first two generalizations and your desire to minimize fading, you should be considering keeping the full gloss but in a lighter shade.
Your painter might prefer to avoid full gloss for any of several reasons:
- Maybe he gets a better contractor price on satin than on gloss and pockets the gain for himself.
- Maybe he/his crew are not good enough to do a great job with gloss OR he sees that there are existing surface defects he fears you will blame on his paint job.
- Maybe he is used to using satin more than any other finish and does not want to have to take more care with the gloss that might show sloppy brush strokes more obviously.
We had a painter who was very reluctant to use another big-name paint company’s products instead of his favorite. The favored company gives a HUGE contractor discount compared with the company whose paints we prefer. Beware, because this kind of behind-your-back dealing might be influencing his advice to you.
I spec semi-gloss for trim and siding-
All paint fades- so I see no advantage there.
Imperfections in wood/siding- most of that can be eliminated with good prep-work. Whatever is left, chalk it up to "Mother Nature".
The biggest advantage of semi-gloss is cleanliness. Flat paint has a lot of texture/porous, it collects dirt/dust. Semi-gloss is much smoother- it doesn't hold dirt/dust.
I use semi-gloss for trim, both inside and out. For the main exterior, I use a flat/matte option. Aren't these the norm? I would not use satin on trim, but I like it for the main interior paint.
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