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Thread: You get what you pay for.....

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
    Location
    Lewiston, Idaho
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    28,504

    You get what you pay for.....

    I last painted my home in 2003.

    The disease that cost me my hearing affects the inner ear so I can have balance issues. Thus I was all set to pay to have my home painted. It really didn't need it but I don't believe in waiting until it gets too bad. One of our neighbors is a professional painter. He is semi-retired, cherry picks painting limiting himself to new construction. He also has a finishing room and does a lot of finishing for local cabinet shops. My wife was returning a dish to his wife and asked him to recommend someone to paint our home. He said "Why don't Ken and I do it? I'll paint the high stuff and he can get the lower surfaces."

    Thus I got elected into painting our home one last time. At my age, with the problems with both knees, my right hip and my back, I won't be doing it again.

    He had me charge the paint to his account so we got the "Pro" discount at the local Sherman-Williams store and we bought their best exterior paint. He finished the "high" surfaces and trim last week and I have been working on my portion. Between family obligations, my wife's cataract surgery and weather, today I finally painted the 1st coat on the last wall on our home. The shop, carport and attached shed are all done with 2 coats. I like to pad paint on the lap cedar siding and have also been using a cheap paint brush for those areas where a pad wouldn't fit. I wasn't impressed with this "noname" brush.

    This evening after getting the 1st coat on the last wall of the house, I decided to start painting the trim around the doors of the shop. I broke out my 11 year old Purdy brush and began cutting in where the lap siding meets the door casing. What a pleasure to use a brush that will accurately and repeatedly flow paint in a straight line.

    I'm sure a lot of people will disagree but it sure seems you get what you pay for........
    Last edited by Ken Fitzgerald; 09-13-2014 at 11:01 PM.
    Ken

    So much to learn, so little time.....

  2. #2
    Many times I have not gotten what I've paid for.

    But rarely have I gotten what I didn't pay for.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
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    In the foothills of the Sandia Mountains
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    So that's why you've been so quiet!
    I don't attempt to do that kind of work anymore, I figure that's what contractors and sons are for. Lord knows I paid my dues with my mom & dad. So far the son & son in law have had it pretty easy but their time is coming!
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  4. #4
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
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    South Bend IN 46613
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    Back in the day they didn't make really cheap brushes but my dad always bought the cheapest brush, used it a few times and didn't know how to really clean it so after a couple uses it was shot.

    I have been stripping a dinette table this summer and using a cheap brush for the stripper. One time I was going to work some more and left the brush out with stripper and then something happened, I never went back out in the shop. Came back several days later to a brush that was a hard chunk. I looked through my brushes and most of them are Purdy, I had one Wooster, so I have been using a Wooster brush to apply stripper
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC] "You don't have to give birth to someone to have a family." (Sandra Bullock)




  5. #5
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    NW Indiana
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    3,078
    I have a couple of the Purdy paint brushes and use them for the trimming. I agree completely that for the trim and cutting in there is nothing better than a good paint brush or in some cases some green painting tape.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
    Location
    Lewiston, Idaho
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    Moses,

    The first brush I was using was a cheap brush I bought at a local Ace hardware for a one-time, spur of the moment job. After I was done, I cleaned it and hung it in the shed where I store my painting supplies. I will buy a cheap brush for a small, unimportant job.

    But for important painting like cutting in "musket brown" trim against "dusk" grey siding, it's hard to beat a good brush. I do use a small amount of green painters tape in places like where the trim meets the concrete at the bottom of a door, etc.
    Ken

    So much to learn, so little time.....

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
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    I think that there are often times when you get what you paid for. When I was thirteen, I got a job turning over apartments on weekends. We would clean and paint an apartment or two over the weekend between tenants. I got very good at painting and paticularly edging / cutting in. We used a real good quality brushes (2-1/2" or 3" straight natural bristle) and cleaned them well at the end of the day. The brushes would last well and there would be a minumum of touch-up. I never mask and can still cut in edges well. I did learn however that there was no way I wanted to be a painter for the rest of my life.

    Today, I still paint all the interior rooms but let others go up the 35' ladders on the exterior. My house paint brushes I use today I bought 24 years ago (I painted rooms after work when my son was a baby). They were expensive brushes then (in a relative sense). They are all going strong today. If you clean them well and care for them properly, a good brush will flow paint well and last a long time. Cheap brushes however are awful. Periodically, SWMBO will buy a cheap brush and then curse it for the project. I do buy cheap brushes for epoxy paint/finish and dispose of them at the end of the project.
    Shawn

    "no trees were harmed in the creation of this message, however some electrons were temporarily inconvenienced."

    "I resent having to use my brain to do your thinking"

  8. #8
    I buy mine on eBay with cosmetic imperfections. half dozen 2.5 inch goes for $35 shipped. Wooster, Purdy, couple others.
    Just can't pay $15 for a brush.

  9. #9
    I grew up in a house where we always bought the cheapest tool, except for a couple of things (yard equipment mostly, because we had a big yard with a lot of trees and demanded a lot of the yard equipment - strangely enough, my father still has both tractors he's bought since getting out of college - a 1975 and a 1989 - and has never bought others, but he can't apply the rationale to anything else).

    We always had the cheapest brushes and rollers, but my parents did a decent job otherwise painting the house, it just has big brush mark in it. My parents are well off now, but they can't resist trying to do this. We never moved up from bottom of the barrel tools unless they were so bad they didn't work. My dad also is not especially good at taking care of things, so his tools gradually become unusable until they need to be thrown away or hoarded "in case they could be used for something".

    Fast forward to my marriage, and my FIL is the other way - he buys good quality stuff and never fails to spend extreme amounts of time caring for his tools. He couldn't remember what type of brushes he's gotten, but over the years, he's managed to wear the bristles shorter on purdy brushes ( I looked in his bin ). I watched a video online when I bought my first house, on cutting in. Bought a half dozen purdy brushes and still have all of them in good shape. They make painting tolerable, and you can do a good job on most of the areas just cutting in. Between sherwin williams (when I can get a discount from the local contractors) and the borgs, I've gotten every type of brush I could use. I sure like the sherwin williams paint better, too (my parents would never buy that, either).

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
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    Lewiston, Idaho
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    David,

    As a kid and later when we first got married, we couldn't afford the better paints. We bought and used what we could afford. When my father died, I was in the US Navy and my Mom had to move to a smaller, older home that she could afford. While home on leave she asked me to paint this new house. She bought the paint she could afford at one of the "marts". It wouldn't cover the hideous purples paint on the walls of the home. I took it back and bought a better grade of paint that did cover the hideous colors on the walls of the house she was renting.

    I try to buy the best quality I can afford and justify. Sometimes a one time use doesn't justify a big expense. Sometimes it does.
    Ken

    So much to learn, so little time.....

  11. #11
    Okay, I'll admit that my go-to brushes are $2 angled sash brushes I buy at Hobo. I use primarily water-based paint. I hit them with water before I start painting, and I clean them with water and a stainless steel brush. They last quite a long time, and I feel like I get a good value.

    I actually do not like Purdy brushes. They aren't stiff enough for my liking.

  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by Ken Fitzgerald View Post
    I'm sure a lot of people will disagree but it sure seems you get what you pay for........
    Amen.

    I just stripped and refinished my deck. The last "pros" that did it did an awful job. I ended up have to do a LOT of sanding to fix years of prior sins. I needed to get in between a lot of bits and pieces. I figured I'd just go to Harbor Freight and buy their cheap multi-tool sander thingy. I rarely ever do anything like that, but I figured that for $20, if I get an hour's worth of use out of it, I got my money's worth and I'd just toss it after the project.

    I used it for 5 minutes. It ran so hot that it MELTED the plastic sanding pad. I returned it the next day and bought a Fein. What a difference, and worth every penny.

    I guess I just need to be reminded of this ever few years.

    Then again, I once bought a $5 rivet puller from HF because I literally needed it to work for just 2 rivets. I had to grind down the nose to get into a tight spot, and I figured I'd just throw it out after those 2 rivets. That stupid rivet puller is still going strong. I have a much nicer puller, but back when I was building the airplane I thought that I'd just keep using it until it broke. Why wear out the good puller for no reason, right? It never broke. So you never know, I guess.

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
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    Atlanta, GA
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    The adage "you get what you pay for" never rang more true for me than it did when I went for the big-bucks varnishing brushes, as suggested by Obi-Wan Holmes. I still had to master the technique, but at least it was all down to pilot error, not lousy equipment. But - it was dead-simple after that.

    I will never have a similar experience with house painting - neither inside nor out. Some kind of allergic reaction, or religious conviction, I guess.
    When I started woodworking, I didn't know squat. I have progressed in 30 years - now I do know squat.

  14. #14
    Well I guess I'll throw in my 2 cents worth also. I think I mentioned in a thread someplace that I rebuilt my GF's deck this summer , well that included painting it and the walls and trim of the house also. She went to wally world and bought a 6 pack of those cheap nylon brushes. Well hey for slapping stain on the deck and railings they were ok but when It came time for the trim around the windows and doors I jumped on the bike and went to Sherwin Williams and got a decent brush. It does make all the difference in the world.
    My Gran daddy always said you get what you pay for, he always bought craftsmen tools and when he passed away I inherited all his tools. There were many sockets that were stripped out some worn out wrench and stuff. I took them all to sears and they replaced them all no questions asked and I still buy craftsmen today. My best friend likes to buy dirt devil vacuums he's gone thru about 5 of them in the past 10 years, so for $200 he gets about 2 years, I bought an electolux 17 years ago and its still sucks so again you get what you pay for.
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  15. #15
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Location
    Fort Wayne IN
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    I agree with you Ken! Purely makes excellent brushes. I started cheap years ago. After my first Purdy purchase, I never looked back. I had three and loaned them out. Well you know what happened...

    I replaced the 3" this summer when I did some exterior painting. Will replace the other two next time I have the need.

    Oh yeah - gonna try to keep the paint off the handles this time around. LOL
    Sometimes decisions from the heart are better than decisions from the brain.

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