Trying to touch up an almost perfect paint job

All,

We moved in to our home last year; the house is not 6 years old, though the previous owners did not live in it much. In many ways it was like buying a new home.

The house was built buy a higher-end builder, known for his fit-and-finish. I was amazed by the paint job when we moved in. I'm certain most was sprayed, though all of the molding is sealed to the walls so I imagine something was brushed/rolled. Nonetheless, it's near perfect.

One of the things I'm trying to do is to touch up some of the baseboard molding that has gotten nicked. I thought I'd be OK just buying a Behr semi-gloss white, but I've ended up with three issues. The color is too bright, the finish appears to be glossier than the rest, and I've got brush strokes in the finish. I'm using a pretty good quality Wooster brush.

Any hope I'm going to get it close? I'm planning to visit my local Benjamin-Moore dealer tomorrow to see if he can help me match the white, for starters. It is really hard for me to tell what gloss the existing paint is; I suspect it's something less glossy than semi-gloss.

Any tips on thinning the paint for touch-up work?

To be honest, I'm dreading the day this house will need a repaint...

Thanks!

 

White is one of the worst colors to match, many thousands of shades.

If you can't get in touch with the original builder, and get some info. from him, I suggest you try taking a small piece from a closet or behind a doorway to the paint store and let them give you an opinion as to what gloss level it is and let them match the shade.

A small foam roller may be your best bet to get the paint to lie flat. If you are dealing with small nicks, perhaps an artist's brush can provide the coverage you need to not be too conspicuous.

 

It's almost impossible to touch up paint with a different paint. Besides there being a gazillion shades of white, different brands will have minute sheen differences. There isn't an industry standard for semi-gloss, gloss or whatever sheen is used. You really need to use the same brand/type of paint for touch up!

When you can't use the same paint it's best to paint entire pieces of wood. If the color and sheen are close, it's harder to spot the difference between pieces of wood.

Calvert's suggestion to just paint the nick [not the surrounding area] is a good one. The color/sheen difference will still be there but it won't be as noticeable.

 

Thanks. I'm going to stop by my local Sherwin-Williams store today to see if I can get something at least close. In one case, I did paint the entire section, but the difference is still noticeable. I think if I can get something reasonably close and paint either entire panels or just nicks, I should be happy.

I'm also going to ask them about the Floetrol and XIM products, which I think could help considerably with the brush strokes.

Thanks!

 

You really need to find out what brand of paint was originally used, short of that you'd need to bring a painted piece to the paint store for them to match. SWP has several shades of straight white.

Floetrol and Xtends are for latex enamels and while that is probably what you have, you need to make sure if you haven't already - http://www.doityourself.com/forum/pa...latex-oil.html

 

Personally, I wouldn't try to match - I'd get an off-the-shelf shade of white I liked and go from there.

If you do try to color match, I'd ask for the formula so you can give them that in the future should you need more.

 

Mitch, I assume it's pure white .... but not everyone's white is the same shade of white Whites can be doctored up a little but it can be hard to match a competitors pure white.

 

Yeah, I'm not a fan of color matching in the first place, that's why I suggested just finding a stock shade of white and moving on.

I had a bucket of left-over with my house but I had a hard time finding more a few years later so I switched to a different brand after that but it was one room at a time.

 

I ended up at my local Sherwin-Williams this morning. Found that the stock shade of their Pro Classic (Extra White?) was a 95% match. I may have been able to have it tinted closer to Pure White to get almost 100%. Took two tries, but I found out that the existing finish is satin, not semi-gloss. Bought a new Purdy brush while I was there too.

All in all, as long as I paint an entire section of molding, the match is good enough for me. I can get away with dabbing it on the nicks and edges as well.

Thanks all!

 

Huh. I would have guessed semi-gloss for trim as well, not satin.

Nice you got it straightened out.

 

Some folks prefer satin on the woodwork but it's not all that common. Semi-gloss is the most popular sheen for woodwork. More folks prefer gloss than satin.

Glad you found a white that is acceptable! ProClassic is a great line of paint. IMO it doesn't even compare to Behr