Best Exterior Paint and why

[gwix98]

Planning to paint the exterior of the house soon.
Looking for recommendations and previous experience
with major latex/acrylic brands.

Will be applied over cedar siding.

Thanks!

 

[CDRE]

As top rated and recommended by Consumer Reports, I've used Behr Premium Plus Ultra Exterior. I recommend it as well. Any paint is only as good as the surface preparation and if appropriate, wash with TSP before painting.

 

[braumeister]

I've never had anything but excellent results with Behr paints, both interior and exterior. I generally go for the one just one notch below top of the line (can't remember the exact names, but the top one is really expensive), and I've been very happy with it.

 

[REWahoo]

As top rated and recommended by Consumer Reports, I've used Behr Premium Plus Ultra Exterior.

^This. Had the exterior of our house painted with this four years ago and it still looks great.

 

[Aerides]

I always use Behr paints, and recently discovered the benefits of their Marquee line: Use less paint and takes less time. Even if the color isn't offered in marquee, you can use that base and still get the same effect.

It's almost double $ per can, but well worth it for far better coverage. Interior-wise it results in basically a one-coat application.

 

[Freedom56]

We normally buy Behr paints from Home Depot for interior work. It's okay and does the job. I wouldn't trust it for exterior painting. We had our exterior repainted in 2010 and they used Dunn-Edwards and it still looks good 10 years later. In Southern California, it seems to be the choice of professional painters.

 

[nwsteve]

+1 for Behr-our go-to for some time.
We have learned no matter how good the paint, don't scrimp on prep primer and any repairs. Even the best paint can only do so much.

 

[NgineER]

Sherwin Williams duration - has worked well for me. four years since last time i painted and it still looks fantastic.

You get what you pay for. Go for quality paint, but also make sure that your surface is clean and free of dust.

 

[JoeWras]

I've had good luck with both S-W Duration and Benny Moore's top line.

As for "why": it didn't slough off. Some brand I got before that (can't remember what the painter put on) started just sloughing off in patches after about 7 years. Both SW and BM have stuck on, and both hold their color, don't chalk, etc.

 

[Mo Money]

Top of the line Ben Moore works well for me. About $55/gallon (on sale in warm weather), but it lasts about 10 years on my 135 year old siding.

If I had bare wood, and the right color was available, I'd use Olympic opaque stain. I have used it on projects, and it has lasted for 15 years. Still looks good even then, after a powerwash.

 

[REWahoo]

You get what you pay for. Go for quality paint, but also make sure that your surface is clean and free of dust.

I totally agree with the importance of a clean, well prepared surface. Fail to do that and it makes no difference the quality of the paint you use.

When it comes to paint, buyer beware if you follow the price = quality formula.

Consumer Reports ratings indicate some of the most expensive paints underperform paints priced significantly less. This is especially true for both Sherwin Williams and Benjamin Moore paints where brands that cost half as much were rated superior in performance. Even the most expensive Behr exterior paint (Marquis) was rated near the bottom, well below many brands that cost less, including two cheaper Behr paints (Premium Plus and Premium Plus Ultra), which were rated #4 and #1 respectively.

So when it comes to paint you unfortunately don't always get what you pay for.

 

[RobbieB]

I always go top of the line most expensive paint. The labor costs so much more to the point that the cost of the paint is insignificant.

 

[MissMolly]

Another one for Behr! We painted/stained ours chocolate. Who doesn't want to live in a chocolate house?

 

[Palmtree]

Another fan of Behr paints. Our house is 15 years old and still looks good.

 

[rodi]

Following this thread. We will be using our sons as labor (paid, but obligated to show up and work hard or lose car/food privileges.) We've had excellent experience with Behr ultra premium for indoor, I suspect we'll use the same for exterior.

Project will probably happen over spring break this spring. Maybe next summer.

 

[gwix98]

Very interested in all the BEHR recommendations. I’m wondering if that’s more a DIY choice or more regional. I’m in the Pacific Northwest and many “professionals” use Miller, Sherwin Williams or Benjamin Moore.
I won’t be doing this myself this time. DW has picked an attractive shade of gray to go along with white trim.
We are trying to decide on a door color now. A darker gray or another color? Seems like wood finish doors are not as popular as they once were.

 

[Bamaman]

This is like opening a can of worms. And I've never seen so many positive replies on Behr.

I always use Behr because Home Depot is easy to buy from, and they can really match any color with their spectroscope system.

I don't want to get ripped off by Sherwin Williams who charges a fortune for their paints unless you're a professional. (I don't like no prices shown in their stores.)

I bought a gallon of Behr exterior white semi gloss with primer in it last week for $36. That's enough to spend on paint for a boat dock.

 

[TrvlBug]

We've gone with top of the line Benjamin Moore. First repaint was 21 years ago when we bought the house and had to fix some dry rot on 2 bathrooms. We repainted 4 years ago because we got new windows, new construction installation and had to repaint because of all the trim that needed to be replaced. The paint job still looked fabulous. We used the same brand paint this time. Agree that proper prep is crucial.

 

[NateW]

Sherwin Williams duration - has worked well for me. four years since last time i painted and it still looks fantastic.

You get what you pay for. Go for quality paint, but also make sure that your surface is clean and free of dust.

That is the paint I had the painters use on the exterior of the 1963 Cape Cod style house I sold a couple years ago. Excellent paint. Here are 2 of the pictures the realtor's photographer took. I believe the color is "vast sky" (SW Duration). This was 11 years after painting. All I did to get the exterior ready for pictures was wash with a mild solution of TSP and a brush and rinse with a garden hose. The painters applied the blue paint using a spray gun. The white semi gloss trim paint was brush applied (Duration as well). This paint is some of the thickest I have seen.

I getting ready to use on my new house some of the Duration white trim paint I had left over (stored in a screw top bottle). I'm curious to see how it held up in storage.

I like Behr too, but I've only used their interior paint.

 

[Ronstar]

Never heard of anyone painting cedar siding. I've stained my cedar siding on 2 houses for the past 36 years. Currently happy with Cabot solid stain. Thick, Applies great. Does not peel.

 

[Calico]

Very interested in all the BEHR recommendations. I’m wondering if that’s more a DIY choice or more regional. I’m in the Pacific Northwest and many “professionals” use Miller, Sherwin Williams or Benjamin Moore.
I won’t be doing this myself this time. DW has picked an attractive shade of gray to go along with white trim.
We are trying to decide on a door color now. A darker gray or another color? Seems like wood finish doors are not as popular as they once were.

I will be having the exterior of the house painted in a few months. The front of the house is red brick, with grey shutters. The shutters will be painted a deeper shade of grey than they currently are, similar to the darker grey in the picture; trim will be white, and the door will be painted teal. I've always wanted a teal door. I wanted to paint the three sets of shutters teal as well, but some friends advised that would be "a bit too much" so I am listening to them. My gut said it was too much - I just love the color so much I was hoping I could get away with it!

 

[Lewis Clark]

The last two house painting contractors we hired both favored Sherwin Williams SuperPaint. We liked it as well.

 

[JoeWras]

I'll say this about Behr: they had good customer service.

I got a clearly bad batch of the stuff from Home Depot. It was ceiling paint (yes, I know, the cheap stuff). But here's the thing, I used it extensively throughout the house after taking down my popcorn. It went up well as a final coat over two coats of Kilz.

I was on my final room of the house and opened a new can, just another can in the line of many I bought at HD. I used the same roller type as the other rooms, in similar conditions. After it dried, it had the worst orange peel I've ever seen. It looked like a popcorn ceiling! I had to sand it down and repaint with a different brand.

I wrote a review on the HD website, and they got back to me, unsolicited without comment on my comment. They asked me for a picture of the lid which contained the production code and how much I paid. A few days later I had a full refund with some apologies. That impressed me more than anything. Bad batches happen.

 

[MrsHaloFIRE]

i thought cedar siding would just suck up the paint. I grew up in a house fully cypress sided ( I think its cypress) and all those young elementary assignments to "draw your house" were so depressing bc it was completely brown. I announced at dinner one night that when i was old and rich enough I was going to paint out house a color and my parents laughed and laughed and said i would never get enough paint to make it a color bc the siding would just suck up the paint. YMMV but that house is still brown.

 

[NgineER]

Cedar shingles should not be painted, I own a property with 140 year old wood bevel siding and it readily accepts paint. I also own a rental property where someone painted cedar shakes, and it is a disaster. It just keeps on sucking up any paint put on it, but evidently it also sheds the paint quickly, I haven't seen this yet. I had to paint the house this summer in order to make it look better, but would have preferred it if someone had not painted it in the first place.

Cedar wood bevel siding can be painted or stained.