benjamin moore vs sherwin williams, which paint is better?

As professional Toronto Painters, this is one of the frequently asked questions from our customers.
Benjamin Moore and Sherwin Williams are the two leading paint manufacturers.

There is no clear answer which company or paint is better than the other.

It is all about painters’ preference.

Some of the painters like one brand than the other. However, at Mi Painting Wallpapaer, we use both because we always like to try something new and different.

Being Toronto painters, part of our jobs is product research to find the best paint for the buck for our customers.

What is the best paint from professional painters point of view?

Affordability

We negotiate the pricing with both companies in order to remain competitive on the market as we always include paints in our quote.

Accessibility

Is the paint store easy to access?

It is not a big concern for the cities like Toronto, Markham, Richmond Hill and Vaughan. However, we find it is easy to find paint stores from one brand than the other when servicing customers in Aurora, Newmarket and Oakville.

Performance

As professional painters, we divide the paint performance into coverage and touch up capability.

What does paint coverage mean to painters?

Painting is a labor intensive job. when we provide estimate to our customer, we evaluate the number of coats required to complete the job.

With good coverage of paint, we can complete the jobs with two coats of paint. However, we may need more than two coats with poor coverage of paint. The more coat means more labor and paint are required. In turns, the overall price for the job increases.

This is why we try to avoid using the paint provided by customers. If we are not familiar with the performance of the paint provided by the customer, we are not sure if the job can be done in two coats. Also, it is hard to ask more after the price is set between us and customers.

Why paint touch up is important for painters?

It is because we provide customers with two years of warranty. if customers make a hole on the wall within the two years, do we need to paint the whole wall or only the portion of the wall after the hole is patched?

In this case, we can paint only the portion of the wall with paint of good touch up capability as it will blend into the existing paint on walls. with bad touch up paint, we have to paint the whole wall. otherwise, you will see a mark on the wall.

At the time I am writing this article, I find this Youtube video. Nick May is a painting contractor in US, he runs a painting company called Walls by Design.

He created this video to test paint coverage. all the paint used in this video are available at Benjamin Moore and Sherwin Williams stores in Toronto.

However, do not pay attention to the paint price mentioned in this video. it is in US dollars.

At Mi Painting Wallpapaer, we have used all the paint tested in this video and we have the similar result from Nick’s paint coverage test.

The only difference is we use Sherwin Williams Quali Kote instead Pro Mar 200 as we find it covers better the Pro Mar 200.

Here is our coverage results comparing Benjamin Moore with Sherwin Williams paint.

Benjamin Moore UltraSpec vs Sherwin Williams Quali Kote

Both paints are at price range within $40 CAD per gallon

Benjamin Moore UltraSpec covers better but Sherwin Williams Quali Kote touch up better

Both paints can cover the previous color in two coats, they are good choice for customer on budget.

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Notes: In general, most of the colors requires two coats of paint as our standard. However, vivid colors, such as bright yellow, orange, and red, deep dark colors, such as dark blue, dark brown and black, still require more than 2 coats plus with primer as base coat.

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Benjamin Moore Ben vs Sherwin Williams Opulence

Sherwin Williams Opulence is Cashmere in Canadian Market

Ben is at $54.99 CAD and Opulence is at $67 CAD

Ben covers better but Opulence touch up better

Both paints can get the job done in two coats.

We have been using Sherwin Williams Opulence a lot from year 2019 and we are really enjoy of using it. 

It is very easy to roll and feel smooth on walls especially when covering builders’ flat paint. 

Because it is very smooth, it reduces fatigue on our arms and shoulders, therefore, we can keep rolling walls for longer time and complete jobs faster. 

If you are DIYers, give it a try, you wont regret.

Benjamin Moore Regal vs Sherwin Williams Duration

Both paints are at price $80 plus CAD from year 2019

Both paints cover better, touch up better and can get the job done in two coats.

Sherwin Williams Duration has moisture and mold resistance feature that we ofter use it for bathrooms and it is highly washable in Matt finish 

Conclusion

With my experience and in my opinion, both brands offer good and long lasting paint to customers. 

If you are painters like us and always apply two coats of paint, I dont see much difference between the two.

The only difference is Benjamin Moore has more colour selections. 

If you want to know how much to paint a condo in Toronto, or how much to paint house in Toronto, read our blog