Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The whole paint + primer thing is marketing non-sense. It doesn't "have primer in it". It just means that it covers "better". Primer is just cheap paint that is more binder and less pigment. Everybody is doing it, but don't be fooled. It's not that you should avoid paint + primer, but you should use a proper primer anyway. If you use a good primer, you'll get a more consistent, smoother finish and you'll waste less expensive paint.
I'm surprised that a blue paint isn't covering. Blue paint typically covers very well. What finish is it? Flatter finishes cover better. If it is gloss, then 3 or more coats to cover is not uncommon. To minimize the number of coats required, use a tinted primer.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
44,579 posts, read 81,186,228 times
Reputation: 57818
Cheap home center paint is great if you are about to move and want to do a quick sprucing up, but it doesn't hold up. We now go to the Benjamin Moore store and pay a lot more but have great results that last, and they also have very knowledgeable people.
If you want the best paint then go to a pa paint dealer that sells brands like Benjamin Moore; PPG or other top brand. you'll find they sell the top products you cannot get at big center stores. Now for inside you might want to go cheaper like wal mart if you like to repaint more often. For outside buy the best and their top product.
Is it me, or is this the worst paint ever? I got it at Lowe's in a dark blue color to paint below a chair rail over off-white. Signature paint has a built in primer. I would hate to see how badly it would cover without primer in it.
After two coats failed to cover, to the point that I knew a 3rd coat wouldn't cover either, I took it back to the store. I went to HD and bought good old Behr, and it is covering great.
Could I have gotten a bad batch? Hard to believe a company can stay in business with paint like this.
I tried Valspar on an accent wall (in a caramel color) and it took about five days to dry completely. The other walls in the room I painted with the "non accent" color and they were dry (and not tacky feeling) by that evening. Granted the caramel was a fairly saturated color, but I made sure it was well-stirred in advance and it was going over a clean white wall, like the other paint.
I have never been impressed with Benjamin Moore paint, it is no better than Sherwin Williams or any of the other actual paint-store paints and it costs about half again as much. Plus Sherwin Williams gave me a complete fan deck, which I love having, so they got my business. I've used Behr before (very small town and not much choice) and it was okay, definitely not the best paint ever as far as coverage, but it goes on well. I've found the HD paint dept people to be a very mixed bag, some of them are excellent and some of them have obviously been pulled in for the day from plumbing or wherever.
Kinda odd this came up. I did a kitchen remodel for a lady last year and she asked if I would send a painter by for some touch up. I went instead. Love seeing the old clients and catching up. WE had used Valspar Signature as it was the only way we could buy the color she wanted. The paint was so thick you almost couldn't push it off of a paint brush. Getting nice smooth cut in lines was a real trick. So today when I was there she told me where the paint can was in her garage. I found it and the lid to the can had rotted off. Nothing spilled on it, can was clean but the lid was done and so was the paint considering it was hard. Another observation on my part, it seems this goo goes on so thick that it's subject to chipping. I haven't had a chipping interior paint that I remember in my over 50 years in this game. It will be the last time I use the Valspar Signature paints. Not sure why they use a plastic can and a tin lid but there's apparently something very caustic in the can for this to happen. My client is now considering changing colors....and brand of paint.
We painted our entire interior with Valspar Signature two years ago. No real problems. Other than touch up some wall-hits from clumsy people were moving things around, I haven't had to do anything since.
Would I use it again? Not sure. If/when we paint something again I might try Benjamin Moore just to see where all of the praise comes from.
Red paint over any other color is notoriously hard to get right without several coats.
True. I just put on my last coat of red, and it still looks crappy as far as coverage. Coat number six. I give up. If this was in the house I'd be ticked off royally. It's a desktop in the garage corner to be used as a workbench so I don't care so much. Two coats of poly and I'm finished.
Behr from HD.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
