Exterior Grade Paint...

[repsac]

This is a two parter, that I'm not totally sure is related. If it's not, it's a damn close coincidence.

I ran into town today to pick up a bit of stuff for around the house. One of the things I needed was something called "Kilz." I don't know how to explain the stuff, beyond saying that it kills mildew and makes a really nice base coat if you're having to cover up oil based paint with latex. ( damn the idiot who painted the house!)

Pulling into a space at Wally-World, I meander my happy butt down the parking lane; only to find myself backtracking. What had happened was this:

As I passed this beat up old Isuzu pickup, I noticed that the paint on it looked really odd. Backing up, it was on closer inspection that I noticed the thing was covered in streaks and the paint looked really thick. Yes dear friends, this old truck had been painted with WHITE house paint. In fact, I could see brush streaks all over it. To the owner's credit, they even used black to paint the letters, though they didn't quite stay within the lines. Probably didn't have Maaco on speed dial.

While I was there, I happen to see this couple with a huge basket full of paint walking away from the counter. The employee there has this really odd look. As I approached, he looked at me and said "That's the strangest question I've ever been asked. They wanted to know if spraypaint could be used to paint a car."

[Sofar]

I know a while ago, (like, in the nineteen-twenties,) cars were frequently hand-painted, with brushes, but that particular touch would probably look better on a 1931 Chrysler Imperial than a 1969 Isuzu pick-up truck.

[draftermatt]

Ha. Kilz is good stuff.

Well you can use a rattle can to paint a car. A friend's dad painted his truck in Rust-Oleum white, looked good.

I used Rust-Oleum flat black for a primer coat on my old truck.

Still who grabs paint and a brush and paints the car?

[Gurndigarn]

I ran into town today to pick up a bit of stuff for around the house. One of the things I needed was something called "Kilz." I don't know how to explain the stuff, beyond saying that it kills mildew and makes a really nice base coat if you're having to cover up oil based paint with latex.

Tip: Crayola "washable" markers, unless you get to them immediatly, aren't washable. Until you paint over them, then the paint causes them to bleed. I learned this when I was going to sell my first house. Five coats of regular paint, two coats of Kilz, and then two more coats of regular paint later, you had to look closely to realize it was still there.

( damn the idiot who painted the house!)

Oh, I know that rant. I could make a long thread on it. Just as an example: the idiots before me painted the house, presumable to sell it. I assume their real estate agent told them to paint everything white (something I don't agree with, but whatever).

What their agent should have told them was "and take the time to do a decent job". Peeling wallpaper? Just trim the peeling part and paint over it. Door? Who needs to take it off the hinges to do a proper job? Or, for that matter, to put a dropcloth under it? After all, the carpet under it is real cheap, too. Oh, and for that matter, folks: the cheap ten-buck-a-gallon paint doesn't stick to those fake-wood foam trim pieces all that well, or the doors made out of the same stuff, unless you use primer.

And that's the least of the problems I encountered, folks. But I got it at a reasonable price (in retrospect, a good thing, as I probably couldn't have afforded what I was looking at) when they dropped the price by almost 10% a week before forclosure.

As I passed this beat up old Isuzu pickup, I noticed that the paint on it looked really odd. Backing up, it was on closer inspection that I noticed the thing was covered in streaks and the paint looked really thick. Yes dear friends, this old truck had been painted with WHITE house paint. In fact, I could see brush streaks all over it.

When they're past a certain age (read: not worth anything, but not worth replacing, either), Maaco just isn't worth it. Most people get a bit more creative, though. Camoflage is one of the better ways to go. If I ever get to that point, though, I'm going to do Area 51 style camo (maroon, black, orange, and bright green).

[protege]

I'd like to smack whoever painted my house. Not only is everything inside white, but it, well, looks like shit. Rather than remove things like hooks, or those cloth/metal things used to hold pictures..they were simply painted over. Now I have little spots all over the walls when those things finally fell off...which means I'm going to have to do it again. As if that wasn't enough, no effort was made to remove some things--the towel rails in the bathroom, some light switch covers, etc. as all these have paint on them.

Maaco isn't worth it at *any* price. (For those who don't know, they have a well-deserved reputation for poor quality paint jobs.) Spray cans can be used to paint cars...however, unless you're a fanatic about polishing it out, it looks bad. I used a few to touch in some rusty spots on the Tempo before it was destroyed. After sanding and polishing, it looked pretty good.

[Emrld]

kilz is a wonderful product and is basically a "sealing" base coat.

I would like to suggest if you have a mildew situation you are dealing with that you do a bleach treatment first. (use a common household bleach and water scrub - let it dry) prior to sealing with kilz.

We had a house we bought that a very talented teenager had been given free range on how to paint. It was amazing work - I think chemical enhancment's were used for some of the inspirations.
We had to use three layers of kilz to be able to paint neutral boring off white on the wall. As sad as it may seem to those with an artistic eye - white/ off white sell better.

As for the pricing of houses - people who are selling their own homes have lived their for a while and become attached and place a higher value than an outsider would on the property. (plus hey why not try to get as much as you can) And, there are some people who do not know how to properly paint a house - however they take the time and energy to do so - and to them especially if it is one of the first times they have done so- it is an amazing job

[tollbaby]

Tip: Crayola "washable" markers, unless you get to them immediatly, aren't washable. Until you paint over them, then the paint causes them to bleed. I learned this when I was going to sell my first house. Five coats of regular paint, two coats of Kilz, and then two more coats of regular paint later, you had to look closely to realize it was still there.

Mr. Clean Magic Eraser My kids had drawn ALL over the walls in their basement playroom (which I hardly ever entered, seriously disliking our basement). Magic Eraser thing took off the crayon, colored pencil, marker and even sharpie drawings.

[MadMike]

I'd like to smack whoever painted my house. Not only is everything inside white, but it, well, looks like shit.

My house was the same way. They used this cheap-ass white paint on all the walls that would mark up if you even looked at it the wrong way. And if you have a kid who has a bad habit of running his dirty little fingers along the wall as he goes up the steps, God help you. I tried to scrub off the marks, but they wouldn't come off, until I scrubbed so hard the paint itself started to flake off.

We ended up repainting all the walls in the house with semigloss, which not only made it a lot easier to clean, but also gave the house a nice splash of color.

About the only good thing about the original cheapass paint was that the new paint stuck to it quite nicely. Other than a few spots I had to patch here and there, we didn't have to use any primer. Good thing too, because it took forever to do. The living room alone took almost half a day to do.

[Sofar]

The landlord had her sons paint our house before we moved in. They painted over hinges, the counterweight ropes on the windows, the window locks, lightswitches, outlets, they painted the track in which our window sashes move, rendering most of them immobile, and they used matte paint on the woodwork, painting over high-gloss, no primer. They also did an extremely poor job of painting the lead glazing bars on our windows, the fact that no owner of this house in the last hundred years had tried to do that did not deter them. Fortunately the paint came off the lead right away, but it still stuck to the glass.

[strawbabies]

The woman who owned my house before we moved in was a property manager. While her husband was out one day, she repainted the house. She actually did a pretty good job with the painting itself, but some of the colors she chose were horrendous. The master bathroom was almost a Barbie pink. Nobody but a four year old girl should ever have any room that color. Luckily, my fiance decided to surprise me when I was out of town and redo the bathroom in a grape leaf color and completely redecorate it.

We're still waiting to get some time to repaint the magenta master bedroom.

[Knightmare]

Here I am, the resident paint man, and I have nothing to say!

Except Kilz is a good product.

[Becks]

Still who grabs paint and a brush and paints the car?

Someone with a lot of time on their hands?

[MystyGlyttyr]

The master bathroom was almost a Barbie pink. Nobody but a four year old girl should ever have any room that color.

I want a pink bedroom

My dad once spray-painted an old truck of his into a camo pattern, but all we used this truck for was hauling firewood (it wasn't even licensed for the road, it mostly went through fields and woods), so he did it more for fun than anything else.

[UncleImpy]

A tip I learned from my apartment days. If you have marker/writing on the wall, use a base coat of silver paint FIRST, then cover with a couple of coats of white. Amazingly, that did the trick!

[BookstoreEscapee]

Still who grabs paint and a brush and paints the car?

Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer?

When they painted my old apartment they just painted over everything...including light switches and electrical outlets...

The first floor hall of my college dorm was painted Pepto Pink (luckily just the hallway, all the rooms were off-white or light blue). It is now a coed hall (guys on one side, girls on the other, separated by the lobby), so I hope they've since repainted. Happily, I lived on the second floor, which was blue, which is my favorite color .