Paint

[mdechgan]

Have any of you painted your house or walls?

I want to paint my concrete wall/fence around my house property.

I went to Home Pro and Homeworks. They were like dozens of brands and dozens more of types.

What do you guys recommend?

TOA, Beger, Nippon, ICI, Captain?

Also is primer important or should I believe those self primer models?

Do any of these brands have a regular base white? Nothing to mix, because I hate having to match colors for future painting and repairs. Nothing like a pearl, smokey, emeraled white. Just white.

[kamalabob2]

I looked at five major brands of paint for our home, garage and wall in Issan. TOA, CAPTAIN, JOTUN, ICI, BEGER. ALL of the major paint companies have decent WEB sites, some quite good with English and specifications for paints. They certainly all have color charts available at retailers. Plus in my experience they all have sales staff who speak English if you call the headquarters. They were all happy to answer questions.

In our case we got written quotes from six possible suppliers of the paint for three different specific "model numbers" of specific paint. No CUSTOM mix, most all in 5 gallon buckets, some in 15 liter buckets. We used SUPERPRIMER from ICI for all but the metal and wood. We selected ICI Dulux Weathershield Ultima Paint for all exterior concrete and "Elephant Wood" painting and ICI EASY CARE for the interior painting. We selected ICI Dulux Weathershield for Veranda ceilings.

The price varied greatly depending on the shop. The moderntrade stores such as Home Pro, Home Works, Home Mart, were higher priced than a high volume "paint depot" in Buriram. We had the prices in writing for the 5 other stores. By shopping around we were able to afford top grade paint.

Towards the end of the home building the builder bought some 3 liter and one gallon size pails for final touch up. In my limited experience I would say that not only the PRIMER, but the PREPARATION with BOSNY Acrylic Wall Putty and appropriate grades of sandpaper will make a difference in the results. We used a case of bleach with wire brushes to clean the older concrete FENCE walls of any mold. I had them use a Karcher Pressure Sprayer after the bleach and scrubbing.

A challenge I solved right away with our paint sub-contractors was a "tip" to make sure minimal addition of water to any paint or primer and PRIMER ONE DAY, PAINT the NEXT DAY, PAINT 2ND coat the 3rd day. No "one day" paint jobs. I was on site for all painting and I took photos of each area.

In our case I know the builder paid the painters a fixed price for labor and the painters were responsible to purchase and maintain bamboo scaffolding, brushes and rollers. I stepped up and upgraded them from 15 baht paint brushes and I already owned a few scaffolding sections, had aluminum ladders and many blue tarps to use as paint drop cloths. The builder to her credit provided a decent grade of proper painters masking tape for interior use. The painters and builder personally cleaned spilled paint on our floors with appropriate materials prior to my completion payment being made. Initially the painting sub-contractors were "lax" about sealing paint buckets and cleaning brushes at the end of the work day.

We also use some JOTUN Jotashield paint for items we bought from NEO HOUSE in Korat to match the specific paint they used on some furnishings.

The major paint companies all have various "grades' of paint which are reflected in the price and specifications of each paint. Darker colors can cost more than lighter colors as with paint most anywhere. We have a friend who was tricked in his home building contract by an unscrupulous building contractor. He was verbally told his TOA paint was top grade, when in fact it was the lowest grade, cheapest "contractor grade" paint sold by TOA. His grade was so low it was not even on the TOA web site. He used a different paint for his repainting one year later. TOA sells some top grade paint in Thailand, he did not have that paint originally.

Certainly everyone has their own opinion of what is an appropriate paint color. In my opinion there might be more "forgiving" paint colors to use on a perimeter wall than White. Creatures and dust might be less noticeable on a wall that is not white.

"Earthtones" are what colors that most housing associations allow in Western Nations for fence paint. White might be more apt to "reflect" heat onto your yard. Now part of the "freedom" of living in Thailand is that you can pick any color you want.

[mdechgan]

How long ago have you painted your house?

How's the paint after a year or 2?

I see so many price variations from 500 baht to 2,500 for a 2.5 gallon bucket.

I hear the different between a cheap and good acrylic based type is like 2-3 years difference.

The cheap kind will loose its luster after a year while the good kind will last 3-4 years max.

[lazeeboy]

i used jotun on my house about 4 years ago,the up stairs is fine ,down stairs lasted about 2 years ,but this was due to the dogs making it dirty.

[kamalabob2]

The home in the photos I posted was primarily painted in late 2007 and early 2008. There was a gap of over two months so that various floors could be installed. 2500 baht for a 2.5 bucket a paint seems VERY expensive to me. I only considered and priced the TWO top of the line paints from the major paint companies. Nothing I priced was 5000 baht for a 5 gallon bucket.

Our building contract was for 2500 baht for all primer and all paint per 5 gallon bucket. Adjustment was made for the 15 liter buckets, etc.. The most we paid for the ICI Dulux Weather Shield ULTIMA exterior latex paint was 3120 baht for a 5 gallon bucket. Most was near 2900 baht a bucket, some less. The COLOR made a slight price difference.

I am of the belief that this paint will last over 6 years, but I could be wrong. How much sun and how much rain hit various exterior walls could make a significant difference in the life of the paint. Many of our exterior walls and windows NEVER get a drop of rain since we have a wide ground floor covered Veranda.

What I do know is that it certainly can be worth paying 500 baht or even 1000 baht more for a 5 gallon bucket of paint to have paint on your home walls that will last years longer than "cheap" (to buy) paint. Now painters up in Issan do not cost much to employ, BUT I do not relish having these "work crews" inside our home, with the mess and smell. If buying a good paint to begin with can enable our paint to be acceptable for a few years longer it might be less expensive in money looking long term. It certainly will cause less disruption of our home life if we can go many years without painters setting foot inside our now furnished home. The term "drop cloth" is not in any Thai dictionary.

The ONLY paint that has flaked since 2007 was on some blue PVC down spout pipes for the rain gutter down spouts. Then I recalled they had not used primer on these PVC pipes. I had a nephew sand and paint the PVC again, this time using primer and it shows no signs of trouble.

How much water (or paint thinner) your painter uses to dilute your paint might make a difference in how long your paint job will last. I've seen in Bangkok and Korat "Independent" paint stores that sell high volumes of many paint brands. In our experience in Buriram the Independent Paint store gave a lower written price than the air conditioned Home Pro, Home Mart, Home Works, etc.. We had to wait a week for some "factory colors" to be sent as I did not want paint colors mixed in the store.

This store was not a "captive brand (example only TOA brand) store", but a proper paint shop that had the computerized mixing machines from five major competing brands due to the high volume of paint sold.

If you attend a Home Pro Expo, Home Works Expo or Architect Expo in Bangkok most ALL the major paint companies have display booths and sales managers who speak and understand English. It was my experience the sales staff were knowledgeable and willing to answer questions at these expositions. Pamastic paint has interesting uniforms on the female spokes-models.

Major paint brands often have Nation wide "sales promotions" on select paint lines, that are advertised in the Thai Rath newspaper, but NOT the Bangkok Post.

www.consumerreports.org has good unbiased information on why "quality" paint is a better value in the long term.

[mdechgan]

I will start with the walls of my concrete fence first.

These will be subject to sun and water all day everyday.

With these conditions I don't think any kind of paint unless enamel will last 3 -4 years max.

So I am considering having to re-paint the wall after a few years anyway.

Edited October 10, 2008 by mdechgan