Thread: Are all paint brands equal??

There is definately different qualities even in the one brand.

The guy in charge of where I worked brought tradesmans line house paint direct from the manufacturer (biggest Australian paint company) through their rep who got it for him for a good price as employees got a discount. He was tickled pink he saved so much money.

He brought enough to paint to do his son's new house and a weekender he was building.

Spent his holidays painting starting with the son's place.

Put on first coat, then second then had to do a third and still you could see patches.

He used all the paint just on the son's house.

Then went to the hardware store bought the normal good quality and was able to do his weekender with one coat on same areas and only two everywhere else. Used less than a third of the paint he originally bought and it cost him less than the good deal he got from his rep mate.

He was not a happy camper when he returned from his holidays.

Having tested lots of paint over the years, believe me there can be lots of differences in quality.

Originally Posted by China

AB some food for thought, there are only two paint manufactuers in this country Dulux and Wattyl so there is very little difference between paint that is actualy made in oz it all comes from one of the above

Sorry me old China, but you have somehow overlooked Solver. Who are W P Crowhurst in SA.

Given that, just how much research did you put into your post?

Sorry me old China, but you have somehow overlooked Solver. Who are W P Crowhurst in SA.

I was under the impression Crowhurst (Solver) owned Wattyl in SA?

For my money, (which will be going on much paint very soon) I reckon Dulux is best at the moment cos you get a 4L can of jelly beans with every 2 x 4L cans of paint you buy.

How can you get better than that?

Regards

Neil.

Originally Posted by Jacksin

I was under the impression Crowhurst (Solver) owned Wattyl in SA?

I don't think so - Wattyl are listed on the stock market. I believe they are independent.

Here are some more Australian paint manufacturers:
Duralex
Laker
Croda Herberts/Standox (might be foreign owned?)
Mirotone
Imtec
Resene (are they NZ?)

Ive been doing quite a bit of painting lately have found british paints to be quiet poor compare to wattyl and dulux their worth the extra cost

cheers

Originally Posted by davidp

Sorry me old China, but you have somehow overlooked Solver. Who are W P Crowhurst in SA.

Given that, just how much research did you put into your post?

Well, hate to rain on your parade, but Solver (WP Crowhurst) have been owned by Wattyl for more than 10 years. There are however more than 2 paint companies in Australia, Haymes, Protec and a long line of others spring to mind.

To all,
I don't want to sound like a big head here but I would like to provide some answers to some questions that you guys have asked. As I have had over 15 years within the coatings industry and have dealt with the brands mentioned in this forum, I believe I am qualified to provide some answers
1. Q. Are all brands equal? The simple answer to this is that all paints will perform a task one of the same with minor features and benefits like better opacity (coverage), washability/cleanability, and durability. However every brand has Good paint and Bad paint within their catalogue available to the consumer. Dulux (Orica) have the best marketing activity in the Australian market. Orica spends more money on Research and Development (employing over 50 industrial chemists) each year than what the combination of all other brands would spend on marketing. They therefore use this to their advantage by manufacturing very good product. This is also why they tend to be the most expensive.

2. There are more than 2 major paint manufactures that operate in the Australian market. These are catergorises from major to minor market share.
i. Orica - who market the following paint brands. Dulux, Berger, British, Walpamur, Hadrian, Cabots, Feast Watson, and Intergrain.
ii. Wattyl - who market the following paint brands. Wattyl, Solver, and Pascal. Wattyl also owns the Taubmans brand in NZ.
iii. Barloworld Coatings - who market the following brands. Taubmans, Bristol, and White Knight Paints.

The balance then follow and in my opionion offer some very good product at an affordable price.

hi all i've used a few brands, for diffrent jobs and the only one i would not use again would be british paints, it was a terible mistake and one never to be repeated.
davo

It comes down to how much you want to spend. All paint manufacturers try to produce a product to suit everyone and the quality of the product is determined by the price the customer is prepared to pay. Of course the paint you buy for $5 a litre is not going to be as good as the $10 litre paint but the cheaper line has to be produced for the people who wont buy or cant afford the better quality product. Some people will simply just not buy the dearer product (false economy) thats just the way they are. These customers need to be catered to, they represent huge income to the manufacturers, millions of dollars a year, so they can't be neglected as customers, thats what business is all about, making money and if company A wont make the cheaper paints then company B will so its not good business sense.
I have been a spray and brush painter for over 40 years and in that time have used most brands of paints in Australia. If you pay $20 a litre for your paint, regardless of manufacturer, you will get $20 litre paint, they will be all pretty much on par with each other.Every painter has his own preference to which they like best and personally I prefer Dulux but thats just me.
It was possible i n years past to buy a top grade paint for about half the price of the mainstream manufacturers but one had to be prepared to use relatively unknown brands of paint. This came about by the fact that the major paint manufacturers would not sell their products direct to the tradesmen, it had to be supplied through their agents which of course increased the price of the product. I used to use Davisons paints, a Sydney manufacturer back in the 1960's and that paint was excellent and half the price of the big guys.Problem was of course everyone prefers to have their house painted with a well known brand and outside the industry, not many people knew the smaller brand named paints and this, sadly led to the demise of many small manufacturers. Davisons Paints went out of business along with many other small manufacturers due to this fact and the massive advertising campaigns of the bigger guys.
So guess the bottom line comes down to, yes, usually the more you pay for your paint, the better it is and the longer it will last. The dearer paints have better opacity qualities.
I learned very early in my career as a painter to use top quality products. It made my job so much easier and the customer so much happier. You can use cheap paint but it will take you twice as long to apply to achieve a reasonable finish and will need repainting in a few years, like I said, its false economy.

So who makes the paint available at BigW?

I'm not expecting it to be great, but at $45 for 6L...it'll do what I need.

Originally Posted by q9

I'm not expecting it to be great, but at $45 for 6L...it'll do what I need.

Exactly, horses for courses.

Well to answer my own question - Wattyl makes the BigW paint.

Amazing what you find out if you read the tin

...and there is even a big Wattyl logo down the bottom - double

i am painting my house atm. bought Dulux 101 Advanced for walls, and Ceiling White for Ceilings.

very glad with my decision. result is just great.

i bought my paint from a shop Valvet in Oakeligh, paid far less as compare to Bunnings. next time when i went to Bunnings to buy paint, and showed them receipt to match price, their eyes were all wide open

Dulux Ceiling Paint 10L:
Bunnings = $99
Valvet (Oakleigh) = $57

you can see the difference, Bunnings had to match price with 110%, so i paid only $52 for my next 10L Dulux ceiling paint at Bunnings.