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We are nearly ready to paint our new house. Although we do like the look of color coating, for some reason it just doesn't seem to last. Paint seals the block and just seems a lot cleaner. Personal preference I guess.

Our current Casita and garage were painted with Dunn Edwards paint and have held up very well. Six years now and it still looks nearly new. We plan to use the same paint on the exterior of the new house. For the interior, however, we are looking to buy the paint locally if there is anything worthwhile. It would just be too much of a hassle to bring enough paint for both exterior and interior.

I'd like to find a good latex paint. So far all I've seen is Comex and Sherwin Williams. I've read on some other bulletin boards for the Mainland that Comex does have a good line of paint. On the bulletin boards they seem to prefer Comex over Sherwin Williams.

Anyone have any good/bad experiences with Comex or any other local paints?

Home Depot carries Behr, which is excellent. They also carry Berel, a homegrown product....also good.
I would reconsider that color coat, only for it's longevity. You have to mix the stucco anyway, so why not just dump in a sack of color? You can always paint over it later.

Originally Posted by DENNIS

Home Depot carries Behr, which is excellent. They also carry Berel, a homegrown product....also good.
I would reconsider that color coat, only for it's longevity. You have to mix the stucco anyway, so why not just dump in a sack of color? You can always paint over it later.

Thanks Dennis,

I didn't know HD in Mexico carried Behr. I'll check the La Paz store next time I'm there. As far as color coat, we already have the finish coat on so it's actually too late to change to color coat, unless I want to re-plaster everything again, plus all our other pre-existing buildings are painted and we want to keep the same color on the new building.

I can't speak for others but I personally looked at several ocean front houses down here that were color coated. Most appeared to have held up pretty well over the years with a few exceptions. The common denominator?

Combination of salty marine layer and lots of wind.

Maybe it was just a coincidence but it was enough to make me change my original plans to color coat. What we did instead was do the exterior finish coats in two separate applications. First - a rough, scratch coat and then a week or so later the finish coat that contained a blend of cement and cemenquin, which provided a much harder, sealed finish. We are waiting to finish the sun room above the garage so we can just paint the entire house after the building phase is completed. (I know, I need to update my construction photos)

The good news is that even unpainted, this finish has proven itself to be very water tight, going through a few monsoon rains, some lasting a few days, without even so much as a damp spot showing through.

And I do agree with Dennis, Behr paint is excellent...

Originally Posted by BajaGringo

I can't speak for others but I personally looked at several ocean front houses down here that were color coated. Most appeared to have held up pretty well over the years with a few exceptions. The common denominator?

Combination of salty marine layer and lots of wind.

Maybe it was just a coincidence but it was enough to make me change my original plans to color coat. What we did instead was do the exterior finish coats in two separate applications. First - a rough, scratch coat and then a week or so later the finish coat that contained a blend of cement and cemenquin, which provided a much harder, sealed finish. We are waiting to finish the sun room above the garage so we can just paint the entire house after the building phase is completed. (I know, I need to update my construction photos)

The good news is that even unpainted, this finish has proven itself to be very water tight, going through a few monsoon rains, some lasting a few days, without even so much as a damp spot showing through.

And I do agree with Dennis, Behr paint is excellent...

Most walls around here are finished with a plaster coat, then one coat of stucco and one of pega pasta, or just two coats of stucco, the final coat being the color coat. On our old property we used color coat then put a good sealer on the walls. We didn't have problems with water soaking through the walls thanks to the sealer. On our friend's houses with color coat, when it rains, some soak through in places.

Our Casita is painted, as well as our garage and we haven't had problems with water soaking thorough, even during the last hurricane. Your wall finish sounds a lot stronger though, never heard of using that combination before.

Now a question on Behr paint: In hot, humid weather has anyone had problems with the paint getting sticky? For instance doors sticking to the frame when shut?

Originally Posted by BigWooo

Most walls around here are finished with a plaster coat, then one coat of stucco and one of pega pasta, or just two coats of stucco, the final coat being the color coat. On our old property we used color coat then put a good sealer on the walls. We didn't have problems with water soaking through the walls thanks to the sealer. On our friend's houses with color coat, when it rains, some soak through in places.

Not sure if the problem houses I saw had used a sealer - probably not. They had bad salt buildup on several areas of the house, some high up on walls where it leached through. It was so bad it really made me rethink what we were going to do.

Originally Posted by BigWooo

Our Casita is painted, as well as our garage and we haven't had problems with water soaking thorough, even during the last hurricane. Your wall finish sounds a lot stronger though, never heard of using that combination before.

I have to give credit to our maestro, Chava who suggested that technique. It has proven to be a very good finish and he tells me that all we need to do before painting is power-wash the exterior several days before in warm, sunny weather and the paint should adhere well.

Originally Posted by BigWooo

Now a question on Behr paint: In hot, humid weather has anyone had problems with the paint getting sticky? For instance doors sticking to the frame when shut?

I haven't used it in hot weather but I would imagine that as long as you properly prep and let it cure it shouldn't give you any problems??? You might try submitting a question via their website:

Behr Paint and Wood Stain

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Originally Posted by BigWooo

Now a question on Behr paint: In hot, humid weather has anyone had problems with the paint getting sticky? For instance doors sticking to the frame when shut?

Is that due to the paint or the wood swelling from humidity? I've never seen dry paint turn sticky.

I just found this old thread of mine and thought I'd follow up. When we were in the U.S. last May (2012), we talked to a couple contractors and friends who have painted within the last few years. Both the contractors we talked to, and our friends said the quality of paint in California has degraded significantly in the last several years due to EPA requirements and changes to the paint formulas. Paint just doesn't last nearly as long as it used to.

The contractors still liked Behr, but said is isn't the same as it used to be, but it's still better than the others. We did some more research (remembering there is a Sherwin Williams in Loreto) and found that Sherwin Williams got some pretty good ratings. I called the company's headquarters and got a very helpful guy who looked up the paint formulas based on State to see if there was any difference. He told me that Texas (and a few other states) still used the "old" paint formula. He also looked up what is shipped to Mexico and found that Mexico still had the "old" paint formula. He recommended I buy it in Mexico!

So, on the way home we ordered our paint from the Sherwin Williams store in Loreto. They even offered to deliver to our house ( 3 1/2 hours away at no charge). It took them a few tries to match the color we wanted, but they got pretty close, and so far I'm pretty happy with the quality.

On the exterior, we primed with what they call Luxon Primer. It's a sealer and primer that's supposed to lock in the salts and efforvence so they don't lift the paint, then we put on two coats of paint (Ultra Duracion). On the interior we primed with what they call "exterior prime" and used Kem Kote paint. Time will tell, but it looks like the paint is pretty good quality.

I just read the Sherwin Williams bought Comex.

Looks like we got similar advice - I heard from more than a couple of sources that right now it is possible to get better quality paint south of the border. They recommended a similar type prep process and now that we have the entire house painted we'll see how it holds up over time. One thing we did was to put rock all around the lower section of the house which should help protect against salt, moisture and wear.

Plus, we just like how it looks...

We bought much of the Behr paint for our house at Home Depot in Rosarito. With the peso at 13:1 and taxes included- it was about the same price as the Home Depot stateside. I'll let you know in a few years how it wears. Now pool paint that lasts would be wonderful!

Originally Posted by Woooosh

We bought much of the Behr paint for our house at Home Depot in Rosarito. With the peso at 13:1 and taxes included- it was about the same price as the Home Depot stateside. I'll let you know in a few years how it wears. Now pool paint that lasts would be wonderful!

Why not just use a plaster color coat material?

Inour 20 plus years we have painted the hose 3 times. Twice with Comex and once with Sherwin Williams paint. Comex wins hands down, while SW was the more expensive.

For what it's worth, we used Sherwin-Williams paint on both exterior and interior on our Loreto house. A base/seal coat was used and two coats of color then applied. So far, so good. No problems with water penetration or salt leeching. We did have a well preped foundation with plastic lined foundation pours and we also elevated the building pad one meter above grade. We liked the S-W paint and we have had zero problems with it after almost three years. Since it is readily available in Loreto, it doesn't seem worth it to go to a great deal of trouble to transport it from elsewhere. No matter what you use, paint won't last forever. We're up in the States for the holidays and I notice that this house needs painting again!!!
BTW, S-W sells two grades of exterior paint, we used the expensive grade.