Paint! (Help!)

Getting a place of my own. I want to paint it on the outside as well as inside.

I went to a big home improvment store, I can NOT believe how many brands and varieties of paint there are. It's too much!

Does anyone have a good suggestion about what brand and what paint type to use for outside, and for inside? Looking at Captain 'All in One Elastomeric' for outside at the moment, it seems pretty high-end which is what I want. I've seen enough utterly crap paint jobs on buildings in Thailand for this life and the next, so I shall lead by example and use proper paint.

BUt... which one?

Captain, TOA, Jotun, Berger,ICI, Dulux are all the top brands, most building paint jobs look crap due to lack of preperation work :(

Meaning cleaning & putting on primer? The house is already painted (white) and not too badly, should all of that come off first?

if it is flaky or powdery you need to get as much off as possible then prime it with a sealer, this is clear and really sticky, cant remember the name offhand.

powdery as in distemper, rub your finger on it to check.

^I used a dulux sealer and then Jotun on top of that, seemed to do the job.

Spent more time on preparation than on painting so hopefully it should last as well.

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Originally Posted by dirtydog

... most building paint jobs look crap due to lack of preperation work

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Have to agree with the dog. Once the prep work is done TOA is the way to go...

I have the t-shirt.:)

If you end up paying Thai to do your painting keep an eye on things.

1. Buy the paint yourself in person.

2 give them the paint and do not allow them to add too much water, watering down improves application in hot climates but its normal money saving mentality to overwater. This results in thin paint that will flake and blacken way too quickly.

With exterior painting the best bet on the prep work is to do a pay perday deal, when they tell you they have finished get erm to start hosing it down again and wire brush it some more, the Thai idea of prep work leaves a lot to be desired.

^or do it yourself!

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Originally Posted by Helicopter

give them the paint and do not allow them to add too much water

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Don't let them add any water. Modern paints are supposed to be thick, not runny.

Yes, that's what they said at the store; the top-end paint was not supposed to have any water added.

My paintwork is still good (except for water runoff dirt) four years on

the original paint was poor, flaking off and also powdery. This was sealed with what DD describes. The sealer was really nasty and smelly, and expensive. We used it inside too, and the painters almost passed out due to the fumes.

Once sealed, the top coat went on easily and looked fine, TOA

there are some cheap paints around, but they do not last; pay for a good name

In the old days when painting and decorating was considered a trade all paints had to be thinned or watered down, this gave a much better finish than your modern day Dulux Non Drip Gloss type paints, anyway here there are still many brands of paints that need thinning or watering down.

And how many layers typically go on? The painter was talking to me about 3 layers, and the option of useing somewhat cheaper paint on the first two layers, then finish up with a highest quality/price third layer.

The savings seemed minimal to me though, but it did raise the question on the number of layers, which I didn't know about before.

2 to 3 layers, don't use cheaper paints for your initial layers, if you do you may aswell do the whole thing in cheap paints, it aint gonna last.

^I made that mistake on some of my inside rooms, the cheaper paint seems to have changed colour. I won't make the same mistake again, probably.

Buying paint in Thailand is more difficult that firts appears, I have walked out of more paint shops than I can remember. The big stores have so many young people that try to sell you somthing that you do not want. I have just started painting new rendered walls with TOA sealer 1850 baht for 5 gallon and TOA magnolia 1350 baht for 5 gallons. I think white ceiling paint was a little over 2000 baht for 5 gallon.
All bought from a small hardware shop.