Which Brand of Paint Should I buy?

I've always had an affinity for Benjamin Moore paints.  In retrospect, I'm not exactly sure why.  I felt like they performed better and lasted longer and had better coverage per gallon than anything you could buy at the Home Despot.  My wife on the other hand, has always been very turned off by the high price tag.  She is a sensibly frugal woman.  And good with a roller.  And hot.

So a recent March 2011 article from Consumer Reports grabbed my eye.  Here's the link, but of course you have to be a subscriber to access any of the important info.

(I know SOME people who like to split online subscriptions between three or four users by all using the same sign-in/password.  Those people are immoral.  They have access to great info to write blogs about, but no scruples.  The House Rules is not advocating such a practice, but if anyone has an online subscription to Zagat...)

Anyways, to give you the juicy tidbits, while Benjamin Moore was #2 for semigloss, #3 for flat/matte, and #5 for satin/eggshell, It was the Behr Premium Plus Ultra brand that scored #1 in all three categories.  Additionally, the VOC's (Volatile Organic Compounds) which we've all been taught to fear and despise like Nuclear Power and Nancy Pelosi, were approximately one half to two thirds lower in the Behr paints than the Bmoores.

But you get what you pay for, right?  WRONG.  At a range of $48-51 per gallon for the Benjamin Moore and a range of $31-34 for the Behr, a clear winner emerges.  AND, if the $30/gallon range is even too high for you, the next step down from Behr, the Premium Plus (Not Ultra) scored in the same range for only $18-25 a gallon.




















The moral?  My wife is usually right.  And we're going to try Behr for while.  Which, begrudgingly, of course, means going to the Home Despot.  But as previously implied, my morals are available to be compromised.