ᐅ Cheap paint or premium quality?

Many say that good paint is worth the money – others believe that two coats of cheaper paint are enough. What are your experiences? Do you pay attention to ingredients, coverage, or sustainability when buying?

This cannot be answered in a general way. You practically only have the chance to "design" the wall structure in new construction. For example, silicate paint on lime plaster. In a rental apartment or an existing building, you have a 99% chance of not knowing the exact composition or paint on the wall. You can hardly have every room tested.

In existing buildings, I mostly used Alpina (emulsion paint). In new construction, the mentioned silicate paint on lime plaster. The technical data sheets usually list the ingredients. Of course, we also checked those, but it was not the deciding factor. More important to me was the water vapor permeability (sd-value) of the paint so that the lime plaster can reach its full potential. Due to the high pH value of lime plaster, it has a mold-inhibiting effect even at higher humidity levels. However, the paint must also allow moisture to pass back into the room air quickly enough. Anyone who paints emulsion paint on lime plaster might as well have skipped it.

solarcolor schrieb:

Do you pay attention to ingredients, coverage, or sustainability when purchasing?

Ingredients: yes. Health and pigmentation are especially important to me.

Coverage: yes, if I apply it myself. Otherwise, I don’t mind how many coats are applied as long as the result is good.

Sustainability: yes, as far as I can assess. But I don’t research this extensively.

My most important criteria, besides the health aspect, are the quality of the result: color, intensity, feel, texture.

We had already considered colors from Farrow & Ball and ended up choosing clay plaster.

Allthewayup schrieb:

This cannot be answered in a general way. You basically only have the chance to design the wall structure in a new build. For example, silicate paint on lime plaster. In a rental apartment or an existing building, you are 99% unlikely to know how the wall is constructed or painted. You can hardly have every room tested.

In existing buildings, I mostly used Alpina (emulsion paint). In the new build, the aforementioned silicate paint on lime plaster.
The technical datasheet usually lists the ingredients. Of course, we also looked at that, but it was not the decisive factor. More important to me was the water vapor permeability (sd-value) of the paint, so the lime plaster can realize its potential. Due to the high pH value of lime plaster, it has mold-inhibiting properties even at higher humidity. However, the paint must also allow moisture to pass through quickly enough back into the room air. Anyone applying emulsion paint on lime plaster could have actually saved the effort.

Alpina should, I believe, be written as one word on the can, was told by a paint specialist at a hardware store...

There is Alpina and Alpina Original (with the cat). Alpina Original (with the cat) is more expensive and also of higher quality (more efficient, better coverage, but less prone to dripping 😉 )