What you are paying for
in paint.
Two gallons of eggshell look the same in the can and the same on the lid. One covers the wall in two coats and one needs a third. The difference is written on a two-page sheet Benjamin Moore publishes for every can: resin, pigment, solids, dry film, sheen, which primer it wants under it, and what colorant goes in. Every line of it you can check on a draw-down card at our counter.
The glue. The sheet calls it the vehicle.
Paint is pigment held to the wall by a resin, thinned with water so it will spread. When the water leaves, the resin is what stays and does the work: sticking to the drywall, flexing with the house, and holding the color through scrubbing and sun. The resin is where the tiers separate, and the sheet tells you which one you are holding.
Benjamin Moore prints the resin on the first line of the technical data under the word Vehicle. Aura interior: "Proprietary 100% Acrylic." Regal Select interior: "Proprietary 100% Acrylic." Aura and Regal Select exterior: "100% Acrylic" and "100% Acrylic Latex." The ben interior sheet prints "Proprietary Acrylic" and, up top, describes the product as "an acrylic blended latex." It does not print the words 100 percent. That is not a knock on ben; the sheet is telling you plainly what tier you are buying, and it is the line to read before you compare two cans by the picture on the front.
Notice that every exterior paint at our counter, ben included, prints 100 percent acrylic, and that the exterior sheets are the ones that carry a blister-and-peel warranty while the interior ones carry a satisfaction warranty. Lesson 2 reads those.
Ask for the technical data sheet on the exact can, not the line. Find the word Vehicle. If it says 100% Acrylic, you are in the top two tiers. If it says acrylic without the number, you are in the third. Then look at the price difference and decide on purpose.
Titanium dioxide is the hide.
Every Benjamin Moore sheet prints the same word under Pigment: titanium dioxide. It is the white that hides. Color comes from the colorant added at the counter; hiding what was on the wall before comes from the titanium dioxide already in the base. How much of it is in there is the difference between a gallon that hides the old color in two coats and one that ghosts through.
The sheet does not print pounds of titanium dioxide. What it prints instead is the result: volume solids and dry film thickness, which are the next section, and a plain-language hide claim. Aura says "Extreme hide across all colors." Regal Select says "Excellent hide and coverage." ben says "Excellent hide." Those are the maker's words and they are honest about the order.
Deep colors are a special case the sheets all flag: "Certain custom colors may require a Deep Base Primer tinted to a special prescription formula to achieve the desired color." A dark red or a navy over white is where hide fails first, and where a tinted primer under it saves a coat. Ask.
A draw-down card has a black half and a white half. Ask us to pull one on both lines you are comparing, in the color you picked. Where the black shows through is the coat you have not paid for yet.
Why one gallon covers in two coats and one does not.
Here is the number that matters most and that nobody reads. Volume solids is the share of the gallon that is still on the wall after the water leaves. The rest was water. Benjamin Moore prints it as a range, plus or minus 2 percent, and it is different for every sheen inside a line, so these are the eggshell sheets, which is what most walls get:
Aura interior eggshell (N524): 46 percent solids. Spread rate 350 to 400 square feet a gallon. Dry film 1.9 to 2.1 mils a coat.
Regal Select interior eggshell (N549): 45 percent solids. 400 to 450 square feet a gallon. Dry film 1.6 to 1.8 mils.
ben interior eggshell (N626): 39 percent solids. 400 to 450 square feet a gallon. Dry film 1.4 to 1.6 mils.
Read those three together. Aura is spread thinner on the wall, 350 to 400 feet instead of 400 to 450, and has more solids in it, so each coat leaves about 2 mils of dry paint. ben spreads farther with less in it and leaves about 1.5. Two coats of one is close to three coats of the other by dry film, which is why the sheet's "two coats" holds on one line and why a painter reaches for a third on another. A mil is a thousandth of an inch; the sheet also prints the wet film to lay down to get there, 4.0 to 4.6 mils for Aura, 3.6 to 4.0 for Regal Select and ben.
Exterior is the same story with bigger numbers. Aura exterior low lustre (N634) is 45.5 percent solids at 250 to 350 square feet a gallon, for 2.1 to 2.9 mils dry per coat, and the sheet adds a high-build option at 6 to 10 mils wet. Regal Select exterior low lustre (N401) is 43 percent at 250 to 350 feet, for 2.3 mils dry. ben exterior low lustre (542) is 33.3 percent at 350 to 475 feet, for 1.3 mils dry. On a wall that takes the weather, that is the difference between a coat and a coat and a half.
The sheet is careful to say "depending on surface texture and porosity," and it means it. Bare drywall drinks paint. A stucco wall doubles the surface. The spread rate is the flat-wall number; estimate from it, then buy the extra gallon and return it unopened.
| Eggshell, interior | Volume solids | Spread rate per gallon | Dry film per coat | Vehicle |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aura N524 | 46 ± 2% | 350 to 400 sq ft | 1.9 to 2.1 mils | Proprietary 100% acrylic |
| Regal Select N549 | 45 ± 2% | 400 to 450 sq ft | 1.6 to 1.8 mils | Proprietary 100% acrylic |
| ben N626 | 39 ± 2% | 400 to 450 sq ft | 1.4 to 1.6 mils | Proprietary acrylic |
| Low lustre, exterior | Volume solids | Spread rate per gallon | Dry film per coat | Vehicle |
| Aura N634 | 45.5 ± 2% | 250 to 350 sq ft | 2.1 to 2.9 mils | Proprietary 100% acrylic |
| Regal Select N401 | 43.0% | 250 to 350 sq ft | 2.3 mils | 100% acrylic latex |
| ben 542 | 33.3% | 350 to 475 sq ft | 1.3 mils | 100% acrylic |
Benjamin Moore technical data sheets, current US editions. Numbers change by sheen inside each line; read the sheet for the can on your quote.
Multiply it out. Wall square feet divided by the spread rate is gallons per coat. Dry film times coats is what stays on the wall. Two gallons that cost different money and leave the same dry film are the same paint job. Two that leave different dry film are not.
Sheen is a number, and it changes the other numbers.
The sheet prints sheen as a gloss reading at an angle. Inside one line the numbers run like this on the Regal Select interior sheets: flat 1 to 4 at 85 degrees, matte 3 to 5 at 85, eggshell 15 to 22 at 85, pearl 20 to 30 at 60, semi-gloss 50 to 60 at 60. Aura and ben print the same scale. So "eggshell" is not a feeling; it is 15 to 22 on a meter, and two lines with the same sheen name read close to the same.
What people miss is that the solids change with the sheen. Aura interior goes from 47 percent in matte to 38 in semi-gloss. Regal Select goes from 46 in flat to 37 in semi-gloss. The shinier the finish, the more resin and the less pigment in the can, and the less hide per coat. That is why trim in semi-gloss takes the extra coat the wall did not, and why the semi-gloss Regal Select sheet says three hours to recoat where the eggshell says one to two.
Where each belongs is the part the hub page already covers: flat and matte for ceilings and walls that need to hide, eggshell for most walls, pearl and satin where they get wiped, semi-gloss on trim, doors, and cabinets. The data sheet adds one line to that: every one of these is washable after two weeks. Do not scrub a wall you painted Tuesday.
Hold two sheen chips of the same color side by side under the counter lights and then by the window. Pick the sheen by where the wall is and what hits it, then read the sheet for that sheen, not the one for the line.
When "self-priming" is true, and when it is not.
Aura, Regal Select, and ben interior are all self-priming "on most properly prepared surfaces," and the sheets list drywall and wood as self-priming. That is real. It is also where the sheet stops being casual. Three cases want a primer and the sheet names it every time.
Bleeding woods. Cedar and redwood carry tannin, a stain in the wood that walks through water-based paint and shows as brown. Every Benjamin Moore sheet, interior and exterior, breaks out "Bleeding Woods (Redwood, Cedar, etc.)" and sends you to a primer: Fresh Start High-Hiding All-Purpose 046 or the Undercoater 032 inside, and outside the alkyd Fresh Start Deck & Siding Primer 094 or one to two coats of 046. The 046 sheet is honest that it may take two coats on severe stains and that it is not for knots or pine sap. The N023 latex primer sheet says it straight: for severe tannin or smoke staining "an alkyd based Benjamin Moore primer may be your best choice." That is the oil primer, and it is why we still stock it.
Stains. Water rings, smoke, crayon, marker, nicotine. The 046 sheet lists all of them and says "seals and suppresses most bleeding type stains." The oil-based 024 adds rust stains, creosote, and asphalt to its list and is sandable, which matters under trim enamel. Paint over a water stain without one of these and the stain comes back through coat two.
Cured plaster and big color changes. The ben sheet sends cured plaster to 046 where Aura and Regal Select call themselves self-priming on it. And the 046 sheet opens with its own best use: "the go-to for significant color change." A tinted primer under a deep color is a primer coat that costs less than a third topcoat.
Exterior on bare wood. Aura and Regal Select exterior are self-priming on wood, fiber cement, and hardboard. ben exterior is not: "New surfaces should be fully primed," with 046 or N023 named. Read the sheet for the can, and buy the primer on the same ticket.
Wipe a wet rag on the bare wood. If it darkens brown, it bleeds, and it wants the alkyd. Look for water rings on the ceiling. Look at how far the color is moving. Any one of those is a primer on the order. None of them is a primer you skip.
The color goes in at the counter. So does the durability.
The base in the can is white or clear. The color is squirted in at our counter from a colorant system, and Benjamin Moore's is called Gennex. Every sheet at our counter prints "Colorant System: Gennex," and the Aura sheet goes further: "Only Gennex Waterborne Colorants can be added to Aura Paint."
Benjamin Moore's own explanation of why is short. Ordinary colorants need surfactants to spread the pigment and to help flow and leveling. Those same chemicals weaken the paint film, most of all in deep colors, where the most colorant goes in. Gennex leaves them out. Benjamin Moore's claims for it are that the paint is "consistently durable at any color depth," that low-VOC paint stays low-VOC after tinting, and that the colorant itself is zero-VOC. The ben interior sheet prints VOC as zero grams a liter; Aura and Regal Select print under 50, and the Gennex tint does not push them over.
What that means at the wall: a navy in Aura and a white in Aura are the same paint. Benjamin Moore says that on ordinary colorant systems they are not. It is a thing you cannot see on the chip, and it is part of what the tier buys.
Find Colorant System on the sheet and VOC under it. Ask what the VOC is after tinting in the color you picked. On a Benjamin Moore line the answer does not change.
A good roller cover is the cheapest thing on the ticket.
Every Benjamin Moore sheet says the same thing under Application: "use a premium Benjamin Moore custom-blended nylon/polyester brush, premium Benjamin Moore roller, or a similar product." The ben sheet prints it as a spec line: Brush, nylon/polyester. Roller, premium quality. The dry film numbers in section 3 assume the paint got to the wall at the wet film on the sheet, and a cover that will not carry it does not get it there.
We stock Purdy and Wooster, and their own guidance agrees. Nap follows the surface: a quarter inch for smooth drywall, cabinets, and metal; three-eighths for walls, ceilings, and paneling; a half inch for lightly textured walls; three-quarters for textured ceilings, stucco, and masonry; an inch and up for block and rough wood. Wooster's rule is one sentence: lower nap for a smoother finish on smooth surfaces, higher nap for better coverage on textured ones. Fabric follows the sheen: a woven cover (microfiber, mohair) is locked into its backing so it sheds less and leaves the smoothest finish, and both makers point to it for semi-gloss and gloss, where lint shows; a knit cover holds more paint and moves faster with a little stipple, which is fine on flat and eggshell walls. Microfiber and foam get spray-like results on doors and cabinets.
The cover costs less than a quart of the paint that goes through it. Buy the one the surface wants, and buy the nylon-polyester brush for the cut lines; the sheets ask for it by name.
Bring a photo of the wall. We will hand you the nap. Then rub the cover on your sleeve: a good woven cover leaves nothing behind. Ask for the brush the sheet names.
This is the checklist.
| Feature | What the long paint job has | What to ask |
|---|---|---|
| Resin | "100% Acrylic" printed under Vehicle on the data sheet | Show me the Vehicle line on this exact can. |
| Pigment | Titanium dioxide, with a hide claim the maker will put in writing and a draw-down to prove it | Pull a draw-down in my color on both lines. |
| Solids and dry film | Solids in the mid-40s and about 2 mils dry per coat inside, 2 mils and up outside | What is the dry film per coat, and how many coats is that on my wall? |
| Sheen | Picked for the room, then the sheet read for that sheen, since solids drop as sheen rises | What does this sheen read on the meter, and what does it do to the coverage? |
| Primer | On the order for cedar, stains, cured plaster, big color changes, and bare exterior wood on ben | Which primer does the sheet name for my surface? |
| Colorant | Gennex, zero-VOC, same durability in the dark colors | What is the VOC after tinting? |
| Applicator | Nap matched to the surface, woven for semi-gloss, nylon-polyester brush | Which cover for this wall? |
All three are good paint. Pick on purpose.
ben on a rental turnover, a closet, or a room that will be repainted in three years anyway is the right can, and it is zero-VOC and easy to touch up, which the sheet says and we see. Regal Select is the wall paint we sell the most of, because 45 percent solids and 100 percent acrylic with the stain-release finish is the middle of the road on purpose. Aura is the one we recommend when someone asks for the paint job that lasts: the most dry film per coat, the strictest colorant rule, and outside, the thickest coat and the lifetime warranty. Lesson 2 reads that warranty word by word.
None of the three is wrong. What is wrong is buying by the can and finding out about the third coat on Saturday afternoon. Bring the wall footage and the color. We will read the sheet with you, pull the draw-down, and put the primer and the cover on the same ticket.
Before You Price Paint
Know what is in the can.
Three short reads on paint. Written for the builder who has to answer to the money, and for the wall that gets painted twice.
Frequently Asked
What is in the can, answered.
What does volume solids mean on a paint can?
What does 100 percent acrylic mean?
Why does Benjamin Moore say two coats when the can says paint and primer?
What is a draw-down card?
What is Gennex colorant and why does it matter?
Does the roller cover really matter?
Come See It
Put your hands on it first.
Specs only tell you so much. Come walk the yard and the showroom.
119 Cumberland St, Ashland City. The coffee’s on.