I am painting a wall in grey over lime green paint. My dilemma is do I use Dulux trade emulsion or normal Dulux emulsion. The normal Dulux emulsion is £20 per tin,the trade emulsion is £37 a tin for 5l. Is it worth buying the trade bearing in mind it is £17 extra thank you
Don't know the answer to this one, but think it's strange that paint is the only case I can think of where trade materials are more expensive than DIY.
Dulux trade emulsion has higher opacity than the retail stuff, whether its worth the differece in price is debatable. Our painter recently painted with the trade paint but he said its not as good as it used to be and said in future use the retail stuff.
I always use trade. It is pretty tough on the brain justifying paying 2, 3x or even more for paint, but if you're doing a lot of renovating, it's actually quite a small fraction of your overall costs, especially if you're paying for labour. My understanding is that retail paint is a bit like Ryanair is to flights, a bit of a race to the bottom to hit the lowest price. Trade paint supposedly has more solids in, better opacity, goes further, can be thinned (e.g. when going over porous surfaces, if it's drying too quick - summer etc). So I guess a bit like Ryanair, if everything goes perfectly you'll have no trouble, but if it doesn't you might have a bit of a mare. A lot of the UK brands like Dulux have rested on their laurels for a long time and their products have got worse, there are better (mostly imported) alternatives out there these days and equally other companies have upped their game (I hear Johnstones are pretty good these days for example).
I painted a small room in the grey consumer paint and it took 3 coats for it to look good. My worry is I can get two tins of the consumer paints for the cost of one 5l tin of the trade paint. If there are better paint brands that cover better and that will save me the time I'd love to know what they are. I'm not employing anyone to do this but I'm doing it myself it's not so much I want a faster job but more importantly it has to look good.
It's always a bit tricky going over certain bright colours, most pros will use trade paints and quote for 3 coats as a precaution, even if they might find it's ok after 2, it's hard to predict and depends what colour your overcoating and what the new colour is. Some cover very poorly, usually whites and off-whites but also some other colours. You will also find that alternative brands can be even more expensive. You could try Johnstone's, the have an 'ultra high opacity matt', though it is not cheap. I haven't used it I'm afraid so can't say how suitable it would be. Or wait for the pros to come by and give some recommendations