I've been in the middle of a major remodeling/redecorating project for the past year or more, and my latest segment of it involved redecorating the living room, dining room and sunporch. I thought I was finished last week when we got the sunporch painted and the trim work put back up. In touching up the dining room, however, with its absolutely STUNNING Wild Raisin (Behr) color, I noticed that wherever I touched those walls, with whatever I touched them with, including just brushing against it with my arm, I would leave a scuff mark of what looked like gray dust of some sort. Decided it must be sheetrock dust (we'd just had the sunporch resheetrocked) and that I'd have to either vacuum or wash the walls. What a disaster. Wherever I washed left streaks, and while I might get a bit of the gray "dust" off the wall, it would then settle into the indentations of my plaster walls. I could see everyplace that I washed versus where I hadn't washed. Vacuuming met with the same level of success, which was no success. Wherever the nozzle touched the wall, it left this scuff mark. It was obviously NOT sheetrock dust. I wrote Behr, and the reply I received suggested that I put a very thin coat of water-based polyurethane over all of the walls. Huh? I had just put on two coats of paint, they were lovely walls (unless I touched them), and I chose flat paint for a reason: I don't want ANY shine. I wrote this guy back and ask what do I do about the places where I already attempted to clean the walls that now had all this gray residue? He suggested that I touchup any of those spots before putting on the polyurethane. He then went on to do more or less a sales pitch, how Behr offers such wonderful deep colors that many other manufacturers don't offer, and that it was the extra pigment in the paint that was causing this dusting or burnishing. I haven't written him back but I feel like I should do so and ask him why his paint doesn't come with a warning label that if you choose a deep color, you can never, ever touch or wash any walls that you cover in this paint again unless you first coat them with polyurethane. Incredible. So, long story, but what do you all recommend? Should I try to find another paint, go back to my usual paint supplier (Sherwin Williams) and get some of their better quality paint and attempt a third coat, or will all dark paints have this problem? Should I follow the advice of this Behr tech/email person? I just LOVE this paint color, but what an incredible headache. Mitz

Hello, Can one paint directly over a piece of pressure treated wood to be used outdoors (the greenish stuff) ? If a primer is needed, might you please recommend one (Brand and type ?) Latex O.K. for outdoors ? Or, would an oil based be "substantially" better ? Or,... ? Thanks, B.