How to decide on a paint product for your painting project: Does it really matter what company brand of paint you use?

Anyone who has taken up the endeavor of repainting their home or property has encountered the paint product dilemma. You ask yourself – or perhaps the internet if you’re here – what paint products should I use? Which paint company has the best products?

How do I know who to go with and what to pick so I can get the right stuff for the job? What even is paint, really? Wonder no more!

Here at Elite Trade Painting Calgary, we’ve put together this two-part blog post to help give you a brief run down on what to think about when choosing a paint brand and product for your painting project.

We’ll throw you a bit of a heads up beforehand; it’s not as straight forward as you might expect. (Click here for part 2)

Who are the largest paint brands in Canada?

Currently, some of the largest paint companies operating in Canada include Dulux Paints (PPG), Sherwin Williams, Cloverdale Paint, Benjamin Moore, and Behr Paint Company.

When we paint residential and commercial properties here in Calgary, we primarily use the first four listed companies as our go-to brands. Between the four of them there’s always a few quality products that are appropriate for each unique job.

Dulux Paints (PPG)

Dulux got its start in England after the First World War. They experienced a tumultuous beginning with a failed a venture into the wallpaper industry.

Dulux would subsequently redirect its focus to paints and finishes and by the start of the Second World War they would employ over 30,000 people and boast tens of millions in sales.

During the Second World War, Dulux survived multiple bombings of their factory and emerged from the rubble with a new marketing strategy – targeting the consumer directly. From there their success only continued to grow as they began to expand internationally. After many years of operating in Canada, Dulux’s Canadian operations were sold to new owner’s, PPG Industries, who still own Dulux’s business in Canada today.

Sherwin Williams

The oldest of our most-used paint companies, Sherwin Williams, was founded in 1866 in Cleveland, Ohio. The Sherwin Williams Company were real trailblazers in the paint industry, with numerous ‘firsts’ under their historical belt.

In 1873 they were the first to create and introduce ‘ready-mixed paint’ to the market. In 1877 they patented the first resealable paint can. In 1884 they became the first American paint company to employ a professional chemist. Over the next decades they expanded their operations throughout The United States and finally entered the Canadian market in 1892 in Montreal, their first international venture.

From here they only continued to grow their business and push into new international markets, selling 100-million gallons by the early 1960’s. Jumping ahead to the most recent decade, Sherwin Williams now boasts over 4,700 locations worldwide with a new focus on products that are healthy and safe for the home.

Cloverdale Paint

The only of our four go-to paint companies to originate in Canada, Cloverdale Paint was founded in 1933 in Surrey, British Columbia. Starting out on a farm in the Cloverdale suburb of Surrey, Cloverdale Paint’s vision was to bring paint directly from the factory to the consumer.

Following a relatively slow start, they experienced exponential growth as a company in the later 1960’s. This success allowed them to develop Western Canada’s first paint colour matching computer in the 1970’s, an incredibly useful tool in the world of paint manufacturing. In the subsequent decades, Cloverdale Paint continued to create new product lines, equipment, and relationships with other industries and businesses.

Today they are the largest Canadian-owned paint manufacturer in North America. They pride themselves on servicing everyone from large industrial organizations to everyday homeowner.

Benjamin Moore

In New York in 1883, Benjamin Moore & Co. was created by a man of the same name along with his brother, Robert Moore. One of their earliest products released in 1892, Muresco, became so popular that the word can be found as a common paint term in Webster’s Dictionary.

The innovation did not stop there, as Benjamin Moore continued to release successful products into the market. As demand for their products increased, an expansion program began in 1897 that would allow them to further grow their business and move into new areas.

A Canadian branch of Benjamin Moore was eventually founded in 1906 and quickly became established in Toronto. By the end of the 1920’s Benjamin Moore store locations had made their way into six of Canada’s provinces. Today they’re recognized as one of the most trustworthy and quality paint brands available in Canada.

So, we know who they are, now what?

Hopefully these brief histories have elucidated the fact that every paint brand has had different beginnings, goals, and overall journeys. Their unique histories have allowed each to penetrate varying markets and occupy certain niches within the paint industry.

It’s caused them to each take a distinct approach in designing their products. Each product line within a brand will have also been made with a particular purpose and performance type in mind. Some product lines will be focused on being resilient and washable for high-traffic areas or busy homes. Some will have fast drying times for application that’s quick and convenient.

Some will have a chemical profile that’s intended to have them withstand harsh or even extreme conditions. Some will be made to exhibit the added pigments to their utmost brilliance. Even within product lines there are different qualities such as sheen level that will alter the paint’s resilience and appearance.

Each brand has a long-established and excellent working knowledge of all the possible qualities a paint can have and what ingredients are required to give a product said qualities.

This is all to say that there’s no patent on good quality paint products. There isn’t a true winner when it comes to being the paint company with the best quality products. You’re better off focusing on what you want to accomplish with your paint product and how it’s going to be applied to your surfaces.

This involves considering the various factors and ingredients that determine how a paint product looks and behaves. This is one of the benefits of hiring a professional painter like Elite Trade Painting or another reputable painting company for your Calgary painting project. Tradesmen like ourselves have been working with these brands and their products for decades.

It’s given us an intricate knowledge of the advantages and disadvantages of each product in any given scenario. However, if you’re determined to learn more about these factors yourself then stay tuned. The second part of this blog post will be discussing just that: the various qualities of paint and how they impact performance and appearance.

If you’re interested in having some painting work done on your home, business, or a property you own/manage, don’t hesitate to contact us. We do free, no commitment estimates so you can get an idea of what the process would look like for you in terms of time and cost before you decide how you want to proceed. Whether your project is an interior one or whether it’s an exterior one, it’s always a good time to start planning and get an estimate.