Olympic Wood Protector Deck, Fence, & Siding Stain Proves Its Worth On Fences, Not Decks.

The Good: Good colors, Does not fade, Permeates wood well, Cleans up easily, Easy to apply
The Bad: Chips in high-traffic areas, Requires multiple coats
The Basics: While not as durable on high traffic decks, this stain goes above and beyond its specifications on fences, making it an affordable, easy to use wood protection option.


As I continue to stretch out into reviews outside the media I usually review, I was excited to review Olympic's Premium Interior Latex Satin paint (reviewed here!). As I moved from indoors to outdoors with Olympic's Wood Protector Deck, Fence & Siding stain, my reviews became less enthusiastic. That's not to say that the Deck, Fence & Siding stain was not a good product, just that it was underwhelming; it could have been so much better than it was.

I've been using the Deck, Fence & Siding stain from Olympic for four years now. I've used it on both my deck and my fence, with (unfortunately) dramatically different results. Let's start with the general. Olympic Wood Protection stain is available in gallons for a price in the $25.00 range. Like a lot of Olympic products, there are any number of colors that can be mixed for this product - the Lowe's I shop at has a color palate of at least fifty colors that this can be tinted with. I've used three over the past years, all in the brown-red range. Cans of this stain separate after a few days requiring vigorous stirring to remix it.

Like most stains, it is imperative that your surface is clean and dry before working with this product. Usually, I wash my deck off the morning before the day I stain and I wait until the next afternoon before beginning staining. The directions make it clear that the surface temperature must be between 50 and 85 degrees Fahrenheit and so this is a good late-spring, early summer or early autumn project.

Regardless of when the stain is bought, I highly recommend stirring it up for good measure before using it. This stain is rather fluid and works very well when applied with a roller from a paint pan. For touch up work, I've used foam brushes, and I've found a marked quality difference in trying to apply this with a bristle brush as opposed to foam products. Foam rollers and brushes make applying this lightyears easier.

From a foam roller, this stain is remarkably easy to apply. It coats well in two or three passes (forward/back, forward/back, forward/back with a roller) without bubbling up. I've used a number of stains before and with Olympic wood protection, I found there was a minimal amount of bubbling. That's important as it lets the user know that it is permeating the wood as opposed to sitting on top of it.

Every time I have used this product, I have had to do two coats, not so much for color saturation, but for protection. The first coat adequately covers and colors a wood surface, but on a deck I've found that does not last long enough. I live in the Northeast and there is a lot of rain and snow that hits my deck. As a result, it's very easy for me to monitor how long the deck sealing lasts. With one coat, a solid week of rain will wash away the surface protection. That means after a week of rain, water will no longer bead up on the surface of the deck, instead it will permeate the wood and soak in some.

With two coats, the protection lasts longer, about a year. After a tough winter, even this deck stain cannot be expected to hold up through repeated snow shovelings, but for the most part it does. In fact, after a year, the only places this deck stain chipped off were places in the high traffic zones that I know suffered beneath my snow shovel, like right in front of my front door and the deck's stairs.

Even on those portions where the deck is stripped back down to the wood, the stain is offering some protection. I get minimal beading when I drop water on those exposed parts and that means that something is still in there working. Basically, every year I plan to reseal the deck, just to be on the safe side. My deck suffers with a lot of snow in the winter and a lot of run-off in the other seasons. This makes me feel less bad about things like the deck, fence & siding stain lasting essentially only one year. However, even with all of the wear on the deck, this product continues to work well enough that resealing the deck does not need to be the first project of the spring. That's a good thing.

Which brings me to one of the other functions of this stain. This is a fence stain. The reason I cut Olympic Wood Protector deck, fence & siding stain so much slack for the way it works on my high-traffic deck is because of how it works on my fence. I've stained my fence using this product once. It took me 6 gallons of stain to do all around my yard twice (that's 26 8x5 ft. fence lengths, front and back) and after three years, there is not a single chip, crack or show of wear the entire length of the fence. This stain did exactly what it promised and lacking the traffic of constant people moving on it, heavy water flow and blades from snow shovels, this product illustrates that it can continue to hold up.

Water still beads up on my fence after three years. That's coverage! Painting the fence was fairly easy with the roller, mostly just time consuming with the up-down motion to get adequate coverage. Because this is thinner than some of the paints I work with, I had to pay a bit more attention to what I was doing. The stain, because it is tinted, offered great color contrast with the natural wood while I was out staining in the sun, so it is very easy to see where you have stained and when you miss a spot.

As with applying to the deck, there was minimal bubbling with this stain, so it went on smooth, with the first coat getting sucked right into the wood and the second providing a more uniform color. My fence was older and more worn than the deck and I had to replace several sections. With the stain, it all looks the same age - because I did two coats - and it all looks new. I feel confident based on its performance the last three years, that this coverage will last and the fence will continue to look great.

This deck, fence & siding stain has a 5 year warranty on decks, 15 year warranty on siding and fences. Olympic is a well-established company that is likely to be around in 5 and 15 years, so that ought to increase consumer confidence in buying this product. I purchased mine at Lowe's and I've a feeling they will endure, meaning that the warranty may be executed by simply saving your receipt, the stain can's label, and (I recommend) the color sticker from the top of the can so the exact replacement may be made.

Beyond that, this deck, fence & siding stain is very easy to clean up. If you accidentally get any on vinyl siding (if your house is so sided), it wipes off easily so long as you clean it off immediately with a wet rag. This is an acrylic latex formula, which means once it dries, it is waterproof. The key to cleaning up brushes and rollers is to simply wash them out before they dry. So long as you do that, this product cleans out quite well and your brushes and rollers are reusable. I had less than stellar results getting the stains out of denim, so be sure to wear painting clothes for the project!

I've not noticed a significant odor with this product, but that might also be because I use it exclusively outside and I live in a fairly windy area.

Would it be nice if this were an invincible sealant that never wore off? Sure. Is it one of the better deck, fence and siding stains on the market? It sure seemed to me to be. I've been using it for years and it gives consistent, quality results.

For other paint, stain, and similar supplies, please check out my reviews of:
Olympic Interior Satin Paint
Olympic Premium Ceiling Paint
DAP Weldwood Contact Cement

5/10

For other Home and Garden product reviews, please visit my Home And Garden Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013, 2010, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Shell Out For The Good Stuff: Olympic Interior Latex Satin Offers Disappointment

The Good: Very easy to clean up, Great color selection, Warranty (I trust)
The Bad: Luster is terrible, Does not blend well with premium product, Requires multiple coats
The Basics: A good, but not great, average satin paint, Olympic Interior Latex Satin paint is inferior to the premium product.


In between my reviews, I've lately been doing quite a bit of gardening and I've been working on my house, which means I've spent a lot of time (and, unfortunately, money) to refurbish rooms and truly change my living conditions. One of the big projects has been swapping my current bedroom with the current television viewing room. The new bedroom is mostly green with a darker green base for the walls and a slightly lighter green sponge painted on. Right now - mostly to facilitate this review - the wood floor in the room is the same green as the sponged color on the walls. For the base coat on the walls, I used Olympic Premium Interior Latex Satin paint (reviewed here!). Unfortunately, when I went to pick out the sponge paint color, I went to look at bird feeders while my co-painter picked up the paint. As a result, we got the Olympic Interior Latex Satin paint. That one word ("premium") makes all the difference.

At approximately $20 per gallon at Lowes, Olympic Interior Latex Satin paint has some notable differences from its Premium colleague. Both offer the same incredible color palate (at least three hundred different colors in the system and on display at most Lowe's stores), a warranty and the understanding that Olympic is a company that is established and likely to still be around should you ever need to exercise the warranty. But that's about where the similarities end.

The Premium product has a 25 year warranty, while this inferior paint has only a 15 year warranty. That might not make a difference to those who frequently repaint or who are not obsessive compulsive enough to stash away the receipt and paint can label for a quarter century, but it matters to me. This paint is much more watery than the premium product. So, while the premium was more like molasses or a good syrup, this was more analogous to a cheap syrup.

That said, this weakness becomes a strength when it comes to spreading and cleanup. This paint goes on very easy, even if it is a bit thin. The paint is a little sloppier, because it is more watery. As a result, there was more splatter when I used the roller to paint the floor with this paint than when I used the same roller to do the ceiling (and other parts of the floor). In order to paint the floor universally green, I had to apply a second coat.

Which leads me to using this paint for sponging. The walls look good with the sponging effect. I was generally happy with the look. What I was not happy with was the specific look of it. The sponged sections all have a somewhat translucent quality to them. Because there is a darker basecoat beneath this with a superior paint, the sponged sections do not have the precise color we picked out. As a result, the room looks slightly darker than we were hoping for. Sponging is not something that can be easily gone over to fix this problem.

But more than that, the issue that comes into stark contrast when the wall is looked at right now is the luster of the paint. Both bases are a satin base, so they ought to have the same reflectivity of light. Neither is glossy or otherwise shiny. However, the premium paint has a luster to it that makes it look freshly painted, even weeks later. Almost immediately after drying, this paint had a luster to it that was even less glossy. The best way to describe the appearance of this paint is "extremely dry." Indeed, looking at the paint job, I would think that washing the walls would cause this paint to chip off (which is not true, by the way). This effect was somewhat mitigated by the second coat on the floor, but the paint still has a much dryer look to it, despite the fact that both are supposed to have the same luster.

This paint is ideal for room painting that uses only this style paint and I would have to say that it's best for a room that has colors one is thinking of changing frequently. The extra ten year protection offered by the premium product makes it a value over the long term, but if your painting is more short term, this ought to be fine. However, it also means that using this paint will likely double your work; using the premium paint might result in painting once in 25 years, this starts out with painting twice in order to get adequate coverage. If you do use this as a somewhat more temporary paint, you're looking at painting twice every five years or so.

Cleanup is easy, with this paint washing easily off brushes under running water. As well, I found when I did splatter some of this product, it washed easily (one pass with a wet sponge) off the surfaces it was not supposed to be on. It did not smudge or smear, it came right off.

I prefer the premium because of the density, lack of splatter and warranty, where this one's key selling point might be that it's easier to clean up. This is a good, relatively cheap paint, but you're getting what you pay for.

For other paint-related products, please be sure to visit my reviews of:
Olympic Premium Ceiling Paint
Z Pro 24 Paint Tray
Linzer 6 1/2" Pipe Roller

5/10

For other home and garden product reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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A Warranty That Matters Sells Me On Olympic Premium Interior Latex Satin Paint!

The Good: Good paint, Excellent color range, Goes on easy, Difficult to clean up, Warranty, No odor
The Bad: Did not hold up against my painter's tape
The Basics: A great product, this premium interior latex satin paint has consistent color quality, ease of use and durability, gallon to gallon.


If you ever want to freak out the salespeople at Lowe's, ask them how you would go about honoring the warranty on the paints they sell. Seriously, the look on the salesperson's face was precious when she went through her litany of why I should shell out $7.00 more per gallon for the Olympic Premium Interior Latex Satin paint and I called her on the main difference between this and the non-premium stuff was a 25 year warranty vs. a 15 year warranty. So, feeling somewhat smart (and serious) I asked how one would go about executing that warranty. This caused the poor woman's jaw to drop and she called over a manager. I smiled.

Here's the thing, it was worth it.

At the end of the day, I got my answer; to exercise the warranty, simply bring in the receipt and the label and Lowe's would provide new paint. Now, Olympic has been making paints since 1938, so between a brand that is recognizable and a retailer that I have a pretty strong impression will still be in business in 50 years, I felt confident buying a couple of gallons of this paint for the new room I'm working on.

First off, when it came to color selection, this Olympic brand is a wealth of choices. While I'm sure there are color matching machines that will allow this to be tinted in virtually any color, there were (literally) over five hundred color choices available for the interior latex satin paint that are already in the system. That amount of choices makes it very easy to find a color for virtually any room or surface.

Second, when I was being sold this paint, I was told the two differences were: the 25 year warranty and the thickness of the paint. Having used lesser paints before (and, sadly, since), I can attest that this paint is thicker. In terms anyone can understand, this is more of a sludge than a liquid; more like syrup than water. This is a great selling point as it means that the paint goes on thicker, coating any surface in one pass. The added cost means that while the product might not go quite so far, it virtually eliminates the need to go back and paint a second coat. Versus the 15 year warranty standard (not premium) interior latex satin paint from Olympic, I would say this went roughly 7/8 as far. Meaning, I got maybe 1/8 a gallon more out of the cheaper stuff in terms of coverage, but I had to do a second coat. This makes the premium paint a better value as I only had to use 1 gallon (and one coat!), as opposed to 2 gallons (or, more honestly 1 1/2 - 1 3/4 gallons) of the cheaper stuff.

Honestly, as someone who is not a professional painter (though I have been doing it quite a bit the last few years!), this product was a great choice for repainting rooms and ceilings. Like many people, I was starting with white walls. My colors ranged from dark green to a light minty green. Painting at night, without the benefit of natural light, it was obvious where the paint was covering, even with light colors. The dark colors provide a great contrast, making it obvious and clear where has been painted. When painting the ceiling with light colors (on a stucco ceiling), it was clear where I had painted and that cannot always be said. I'm attributing that to the thickness of the paint. The coverage was clear, thick and it stuck.

As well, painting on the stucco ceiling offered me a great opportunity to observe and comment on the coverage. Rough surfaces like stucco usually require multiple passes in order to fully cover an area. I've never had a painting experience on a stucco ceiling where I did not go back the next morning and in the harsh light of daylight find places where I missed. That is, until now. The premium interior latex satin paint covered in two strokes of my roller. One forward, one back and the row was painted. Period.

As well, there was almost no drippage while I was painting the ceiling. Because the paint is thicker, it acts more like glue, sticking to the surface, including a ceiling. I tend to coat my roller liberally and as a result, I would have expected drippage, but there was none with the premium interior latex satin paint. As well, it was very easy when I was painting the walls, to even out spots where I had been too liberal at the top with covering my roller, so even when wet, the places where too much paint may have initially been applied are obvious. So, if you're a sloppy painter, mistakes may be evened out very easily.

This is a great product for anyone who is doing repainting as it basically requires mixing, pouring, applying to a brush or roller and coating your surface. It worked fine on both primed and unprimed surfaces and coated fully. The can recommends the surface be primed, but I had no difficulties on some unprimed wood. The coverage was as good as on the primed wall. I've used this paint on stucco, sheetrock, plasterwall and wood, with equal results.

As well, there was virtually no odor with this paint. I tend to paint in the evening and by noon the next day, the newly painted walls were dry and there was no smell. Truth be told, the rooms I've been painting have poor ventilation and air circulation and I've had to have them closed off so my cats did not "repaint" after I painted the walls. In less than a day, even under those conditions, the paint dried and the minimal smell dissipated.

This leads to one of my own oddities; in the pros, I put "difficult to clean up." I have this as a pro for a reason. First, let me qualify that; this paint comes off rollers and brushes real easy with running water. Like all latex paints, it cleans up with soap and water until it dries, so as long as you don't leave your brush or roller laying around to dry before cleaning it up, it will be very easy to clean your tools up.

But, I found that it was not easy to clean up when droplets got on surfaces I did not want them on. So, for example, when I was painting the walls about three weeks after I painted the ceiling, I got a few very dark drops on the ceiling. Most of the paint came off, but it was impossible for me to get the rest off without stripping off the paint I had painted on a few weeks before. On the plus side, the ceiling paint held up under my angry, frantic scrubbing to try to get the new, wet paint off. Ultimately, I wanted a paint that was durable and my inability to get the paint fully off the ceiling when I splattered it reassured me that this paint is the real deal. It's going to coat, it's going to coat well and it's not going to come off, even when I scrub! That means it might actually last the 25 years it's warrantied for.

What it won't hold up through is my painter's tape. When I went to do the walls, I put the blue painter's tape along the edges of the ceiling and I pressed down hard because I wanted to be sure that no paint could get beneath it. Even though the paint was well-dried and most of my mistakes happened nowhere near the tape, there were some problems when I removed the tape. It's entirely possible I let the painter's tape stay on the ceiling too long (it was up for at least two weeks - I'm blushing with embarrassment!). When I pulled off the tape, there were four or five places that it took the paint with it.

Which leads me back to the warranty. The paint is warrantied for 25 years, guaranteed not to chip, wear off or wash off. Well, the tape took some off and my vigorous scrubbing - wherein I learned I could not get any wet paint off the ceiling without scrubbing through my new paint job - took a little off before I realized that this was not the way to go. So, I went back to Lowe's and I told them what happened. I showed them my receipt, they checked the database to make sure the product had the warranty and I was provided another gallon. It was that simple. So, as long as you know that you'll need your receipt and label to exercise the warranty and save it (I recommend keeping the color code sticker from the top when you have it mixed as well, as that has all of the exact information needed to make more) in a folder somewhere, shelling out $26.98 per gallon for this becomes a potential incredible value over the lifetime of your house or walls.

Outside the one problem I encountered, this was a flawless paint and I know I will go back for more when I do future projects. Would it have been nice if the painter's tape had not been able to strip it off the ceiling? Yes. But, this, too allows me to share more insights with prospective buyers; the premium interior latex satin blends perfectly with itself.

What I mean by this is that when I got my new can of paint and went back to the ceiling, I simply stirred it up and did touch up work on the few stripped areas. I did not need to do a full coat in order to "hide" the touchups. The shading was exactly mixed, the paint goes on so smoothly that there was no seam between what was stripped away and reapplied and where the paint had no flaws.

That's quality. This is a great paint for those who are investing in a house and plan to be in it for some time. Between being a great product that is remarkably easy to work with, this paint is sold regularly from a retailer that will be around and is from a company that is well-established and does not appear to be going anywhere.

Buy with confidence! Paint with perfection; it will only take one coat!

For paints, stains and other painting products, please check out my reviews of:
Olympic Premium Ceiling Paint
Z Pro Plastic Paint Tray
Shur-Line Teflon Paint Roller Cover

9/10

For other home and garden product reviews, please be sure to visit my index page!

© 2011, 2010, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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Olympic Premium Ceiling Paint: Same Paint, A Little Thicker, Still Worth It!

The Good: Good paint, Excellent color range, Goes on easy, Difficult to clean up, Warranty, No odor
The Bad: Expensive
The Basics: An ideal paint for ceilings or high traffic areas, Olympic Premium Ceiling Paint lives up to a do-it-yourselfer's expectations, despite the expense!


It is hard not to love the way products get repackaged in order to meet different niches. When I abandoned my house a few years back, I did so right after trying to make a home for my partner at the time and we had repainted a room entirely to attempt to make it feel more "ours." She is long gone now and following the move, I fell in love again and my new wife and I have set about making our meager space in the house we share with my mother ours through a bunch of home improvement projects. As a result, we recently repainted our upstairs apartment and to get rid of the white walls, we started with some of the leftover paint from my old house. The thing was, we were using Olympic Premium Interior Latex Satin Paint before we had to get a new can of paint. When we did, we picked up the Olympic Premium Ceiling Paint.

Olympic Premium Ceiling Paint is essentially the identical product to the Olympic Premium Interior Latex paint, save that it is thicker and it is available in different lusters than the simple and direct satin finish paint. Olympic Premium is a high-quality brand and the Olympic Premium Ceiling Paint lives up to the quality of the rest of the brand. More than just worthwhile for the warranty, in painting with my wife, we discovered the Ceiling Paint went on smoother than the regular Interior Latex paint because it was thicker. So, while it takes a little more than the standard paint to coat a roller and get a wall painted, the paint is thicker and seems more solid on walls and ceilings than the regular product we used on our walls to begin with!

Olympic has been making paints since 1938, so between a brand that is recognizable and a retailer that I have a pretty strong impression will still be in business in 50 years, I felt confident buying a gallon of the Olympic Premium Ceiling Paint for our new bedroom. We purchased it at Lowe's and there we found that we could get the Ceiling Paint mixed and colored.

First off, when it came to color selection, this Olympic Premium brand has a wealth of choices. While I'm sure there are color matching machines that will allow this to be tinted in virtually any color, there were (literally) over five hundred color choices available for the ceiling paint that were already in the system a Lowe's. That amount of choices makes it very easy to find a color for virtually any room or surface.

Second, as with other Olympic Premium products, there is a 25 year warranty with the ceiling paint and what differentiates this from other Olympic Premium paints and regular Olympic paints is the thickness of the paint. Having used lesser paints before (and, sadly, since), I can attest that this paint is thicker. In terms anyone can understand, this is more of a sludge than a liquid; more like a tar than water. I likened the Interior Latex paint to syrup; this is even thicker, more like lukewarm tar. This makes it a little more difficult to spread on surfaces, but it does insure that the paint does not drip when one is painting ceilings or walls! This is a great selling point as it means that the paint goes on thicker, coating any surface in one pass. The added cost means that while the product might not go quite so far, it virtually eliminates the need to go back and paint a second coat. Versus the 15 year warranty standard (not premium) interior latex satin paint from Olympic, I would say this went roughly 7/8 as far. Meaning, I got maybe 1/8 a gallon more out of the cheaper stuff in terms of coverage, but I had to do a second coat. This makes the premium paint a better value as I only had to use 1 gallon (and one coat!), as opposed to 2 gallons (or, more honestly 1 1/2 - 1 3/4 gallons) of the cheaper stuff. In this way, despite being a bit thicker than the interior latex paint, the Ceiling Paint actually got the same amount of coverage, though it was still less than the non-premium product.

As someone who is not a professional painter, this product was a great choice for repainting rooms and ceilings. Like many people, I was starting with white walls. My colors ranged from dark blue to a light sky blue. Painting at night, without the benefit of natural light, it was obvious where the paint was covering, even with light colors. The dark colors provide a great contrast, making it obvious and clear where has been painted. When painting the ceiling with light colors (on a stucco ceiling), it was clear where I had painted and that cannot always be said. I'm attributing that to the thickness of the paint. The coverage was clear, thick and it stuck. As well, we had no problem finding a wide variety of colors to choose from for this paint when we purchased it at Lowe's.

As well, painting on the stucco ceiling offered me a great opportunity to observe and comment on the coverage. Rough surfaces like stucco usually require multiple passes in order to fully cover an area. The Olympic Premium Ceiling Paint covered in a single stroke of my roller. One roll forward and surface was painted. Of course, I had to go back to roll the roller through the paint, but every time it was coated, it coated the surface of the ceiling without missing any spots. The coverage was incredible and it spread perfectly.

As well, there was no drippage while I was painting the ceiling. Because the paint is thicker, it acts more like glue, sticking to the surface, especially the ceiling. I tend to coat my roller liberally and as a result, I would have expected drippage, but there was none with the Olympic Premium Ceiling Paint. As well, it was very easy when I was painting the walls, to even out spots where I had been too liberal at the top with covering my roller, so even when wet, the places where too much paint may have initially been applied are obvious. So, if you're a sloppy painter, mistakes may be evened out very easily.

This is a great product for anyone who is doing repainting as it basically requires mixing, pouring, applying to a brush or roller and coating your surface. It worked fine on both primed and unprimed surfaces and coated fully. The can recommends the surface be primed, but I had no difficulties on some unprimed wood. The coverage was as good as on the primed wall. I've used this paint on stucco, sheetrock, plasterwall and wood, with equal results.

As well, there was virtually no odor with this paint. I tend to paint in the evening and by noon the next day, the newly painted walls were dry and there was no smell. Truth be told, the rooms I've been painting have poor ventilation and air circulation and I've had to have them closed off so my cats and dog did not "repaint" after I painted the walls. In less than a day, even under those conditions, the paint dried and the minimal smell dissipated.

This paint comes off rollers and brushes real easy with running water. Like all latex paints, it cleans up with soap and water until it dries, so as long as you don't leave your brush or roller laying around to dry before cleaning it up, it will be very easy to clean your tools up. It is not easy to clean up when droplets fall on surfaces I did not want them on and go unnoticed. So, for example, when I was painting the walls about a week after I painted the ceiling, I got a few very dark drops on the ceiling. Most of the paint came off, but it was impossible for me to get the rest off without stripping off the paint I had painted the prior week. On the plus side, the ceiling paint held up under my angry, frantic scrubbing to try to get the new, wet paint off. Ultimately, I wanted a paint that was durable and my inability to get the paint fully off the ceiling when I splattered it reassured me that this paint is the real deal. It's going to coat, it's going to coat well and it's not going to come off, even when I scrub! That means it might actually last the 25 years it's warrantied for.

The paint is warrantied for 25 years, guaranteed not to chip, wear off or wash off. The Ceiling Paint held up when painter's tape was stuck on it, something other Olympic Premium products I've used have not always done. This paint is expensive, but it seems to work well-enough to justify the price.

This is a great paint for those who are investing in a house and plan to be in it for some time. Between being a great product that is remarkably easy to work with, this paint is sold regularly from a retailer that will be around and is from a company that is well-established and does not appear to be going anywhere. And despite being called Ceiling Paint, it does not clump or drip in any way that is problematic when used on walls, floors or doors. In fact, I tend to recommend this paint for high-traffic areas because experience has shown it does not chip off or wear poorly, making it a good paint for surfaces more active than a ceiling!

For other paint product reviews, please check out my reviews of:
Z Pro 24 Paint Tray
Linzer 6 1/2" Pipe Roller
Shur-Line Teflon Paint Roller Cover

8/10

For other home improvement product reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.



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Inexpensive (READ: Cheap!) The Green Plastic Paint Tray Is Weaker Than Most Will Need!

The Good: Inexpensive (may be disposed of), Easy to spot holes, Color makes it difficult to lose
The Bad: Cheap, Breakable, Works better as liner than tray, Not durable.
The Basics: Better as a tray liner than a tray, the Z Pro 24 paint tray is easily breakable and hard to use on its own.


As one who has painted a lot, and reviewed many different paints, I figured it was about time to start writing about the peripherals; the equipment one used when doing house painting projects. One of the big two things I recommend is a paint tray (the other being a brush or roller, as I’ve found my experiences are vastly better when using a roller or brush!). Unfortunately, as simple a device as it is, not all paint trays are created equal.

Enter the Z Pro 24 bright green paint tray. This tray is little more than a liner which is 9” wide by a foot long and is the standard paint liner size and shape. This is a standardized device and what separates most trays from liners is that the trays tend to be made of thicker plastic or metal, whereas the liners are almost universally thinner plastic. The liners are also a few millimeters thinner than the inside dimensions of the trays so they may fit inside the actual tray and prevent the tray from getting paint on them. This green plastic paint tray is actually thinner and may as well be a liner; it does not have the feet many trays have and it is made of a dreadfully thin plastic.

This particular paint tray comes with three liabilities I found problematic, though it was fine as a liner and did not dissolve when I mixed different paints in it (believe it or not, some do!). The first problem was with the color. The bright green color made it very hard for me to mix paints within the tray because the more translucent paints I was using showed the green tint from below, which did not allow me a pure interpretation of how the color I was mixing actually would look on a white surface. Second, this paint tray is so thin – as mentioned, it might as well be a liner! – that when I filled it with housepaint, the side at the deep end of the tray split. Thinking this was an anomaly, I tried again with another one. That was a mistake and the result was replicated.

The final problem came when I filled the tray only half full of paint. This allowed me to actually use the tray as a tray instead of just as a liner. Unfortunately, when I applied any pressure with the roller while moving it in the tray, the tray cracked. In other words, this could not hold up for a pretty basic painting job on its own.

It is worth noting, however, that the two fundamental problems with this tray were eliminated by using the tray as a tray liner instead. This held up just fine when used as a liner for a proper paint tray. As well, the loss of the first three trays was not a huge burden to my wallet as these trays are dirt cheap. However, I was not able to salvage all of the paint from the three broken trays and that was an annoying additional cost to my house painting project.

There are other, better trays on the market than this bright green plastic paint tray and most consumers and professionals will want something more durable.

For paint products and things one might put in this, please check out my reviews of:
Shur-Line Teflon Paint Roller Cover
Linzer 6 1/2" Pipe Roller
DAP Weldwood Contact Cement

3.5/10

For other home and garden product reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.



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A Very Basic Paint Roller, The Linzer Pipe Roller 6 1/2" Does What It Promises.

The Good: Durable, Easy to clean, Inexpensive
The Bad: Uncomfortable handle.
The Basics: For a solid, dependable, easy-to-clean paint roller frame that will not bend, the Linzer 6 1/2" Pipe Roller is the way to go!


As one who has done many painting projects around the house, I find myself often evaluating products I use based on their endurance. For housepainting projects, there are few rollers as durable as the Linzer Pipe Roller (6 1/2"), but because of its uncomfortable plastic grip, I find I cannot use it for more than five hours at a time. That said, this is a pretty minor inconvenience for a product that is otherwise inexpensive, easy-to-use and quite durable.

For those unfamiliar with a paint roller, the Linzer Pipe Roller is little more than a stainless steel dowel which has been bent so it may hold a paint roller brush (or cover). The 6 1/2" end of the Pipe Roller is a simple metal bar which a plastic spool with a sponge-like roller cover is inserted upon. This allows one to paint smooth, even strokes on all sorts of nonporous surfaces. The Pipe Roller is smooth metal, which allows the roller cover to turn uninhibited and paint nicely when covered with paint.

Perpendicular to the 6 1/2" bar which holds the paint roller cover is the handle. The Linzer Pipe Roller has a six inch plastic (perhaps fiberglass, it has never broken off for me to be sure) handle which one grips to solidly hold the paint roller. The only real problem with the Linzer Pipe Roller is that the grip is more square than rounded, so the grip is uncomfortable to hold onto and the longer one uses it, the faster one's hand fatigues.

That said, the Linzer Pipe Roller paint roller is a solid tool that is exceptionally durable and easy to clean. The difference between an inexpensive and a cheap paint roller is that cheap paint rollers become bent out of shape because they are so fragile. The Linzer Pipe Roller I have been using for years has the same tight angles - roller head is 90 degrees to the handle - as the day I bought it. It is made of solid stainless steel and this lives up to the promise of a paint roller by not wearing over time.

As well, the device is very easy-to-clean. Paint chips right off the stainless steel or it may be washed off while it is still wet. The roller heads may be disposed of easily enough simply by pulling them off.

The Linzer 6 1/2" pipe roller paint roller comes with a single brush roller. I was unimpressed by the head it came with because it absorbed a lot of paint before it would allow it to spread and I have since switched to another brand's 6 1/2" head (though I've found I can cheat and use a standard 9" head on this as well!

For those looking for a very basic paint roller, the Linzer 6 1/2" Pipe Roller works!

For paints, stains and other painting products, please check out my reviews of:
Shur-Line Teflon Paint Roller
DAP Weldwood Contac Cement
Dyson Air Multiplier fan

6/10

For other home and garden product reviews, please check out my index page by clicking here!

© 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.



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The Shur-Line Teflon Paint Roller Cover Is Durable, Spreads Paint Well And Expensive.

The Good: Good durability, Spreads paint wonderfully, Easy to clean and use
The Bad: A little more expensive than most other paint rollers.
The Basics: Arguably the best paint roller cover on the market, the Shur-Line Teflon Paint Roller Cover is durable and makes smooth paint strokes!


When I owned my own house, it seemed like every year I was painting or staining something. No home project, inside or outside was more consistent than my need to stain the front deck. In the last year of owning my home, I did a bit of painting inside. My point here is that I did a lot of painting and staining and in the process, I used a lot of rollers and roller covers. So, when I declare the Shur-Line Teflon Paint Roller Cover the best one I've found, it’s saying something. Between national and store brands, I went through about twenty different types of paint roller covers.

The Shur-Line Teflon Paint Roller Cover is a standard 9” long cylindrical roller cover which is designed for the standard metal roller with the single bar. The single-bar rollers tend to be smaller and more manageable and the covers, like this one, tend to come in thinner diameters because the cover only has to go around a steel dowel which is about ¼” in diameter. As a result, covers like the ¼” knit are only a little more than 1” thick, as opposed to the old style paint rollers where the roller frame is almost 2” in diameter. This thinner paint roller cover allows one to get into tighter corners easier and with less mess.

The Shur-Line Teflon Paint Roller Cover easily snaps onto a 9” standard paint roller frame and none of the ones I used ever had any burrs which caused them to catch or roll in any way other than smoothly. The paint roller cover has a spongy foam material which is coated (or infused; it never actually wears off) with Teflon. This causes paint and stain to flow off the roller much easier than with standard foam covers, which absorb quite a bit of the paint or stain before they actually release the fluid for spreading on a wall, ceiling or floor. The result is that the Teflon paint roller cover allows a smooth paint stroke from the very first application. This is a nice benefit for those who do not like to have to paint.

However, the Teflon also means that one has to coat the roller a little more frequently than with more absorbent paint roller covers. This is not enough of a detraction to make it not worth buying. In fact, the Teflon also makes it much easier to clean, no matter what medium one is painting with. If the paint is water based, this paint roller cover rinses right out under running water. I still have three or four of these paint rollers that I used with water-based paints and because they rinse out so easily and so thoroughly, they are ready to use again, as if they were new!

As for oil based paints, these paint roller covers work well for them as well. Using mineral spirits or paint thinner to clean off these rollers works as easily as rinsing them under running water. I never had these melt from using more harsh cleaners and that makes them a surprising value.

That leads us to the expense. The Shur-Line Teflon Paint Roller Covers are a bit more expensive up front than many paint rollers, which are often found in the $1.00 (or, in bulk, less) range. Still, the up front expense is more than mitigated by the durability. Because these rollers may be used over and over again if properly cleaned out, they become a far better value than the ones which might be initially cheaper.

Time after time, roll after roll, the Shur-Line Teflon Paint Roller Cover holds up for painting making smooth, beautiful results.

For other paint and tool reviews, please check out my reviews of:
Stanley 66-052 6-piece Precision Screwdriver set
Keter 16" Toolbox
DAP Weldwood Contact Cement

9/10

For other home and garden product reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.




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