I'm having two houses and a garage painted and found a crew to do the power washing and painting along with replacing some T-111 siding on one house. Their labor seemed about in line with today's high cost and they can start in a couple weeks so I thought I better line up what brand and type of paint, and the color.

I was surprised there were few independent paint dealers left. The Benny Moore store closed down so most people I talked with said around here it's pretty much Lowes, Sherwin Williams, and Menards. The few contractors I spoke with used S-W so I stopped by the S-W store and found their "cheap" acrylic exterior paint was $60 and their top of the line was $130! Needless to say one could save 30-35% catching a sale at the right time or getting a contractor discount but that still means almost $90 for one gallon of house paint.

Given what labor costs, buying cheap paint doesn't make sense so I'll just pay the price but I was a little taken back because it seems like it wasn't very long ago that top of the line exterior paint sold for $40. Anyway this is my bitch.

Sherwin Williams Superpaint is about all I use for interior painting.
Not cheap, but it's good stuff.

We've been lucky to catch sales & it's more in the $40-60/gal range

Back in the 1960"s remember a brand "Mary Carter" that was as low as $2.00 per gallon and the high end paint was $5.00 per gallon...... drill sgt.

I think I saw paint at Walmart for $15 last year and Walmart brand is what's on the one house now actually.

Sherwin Williams has always been expensive paint

I painted my kitchen back in 2009 and remember their paint was like 80 bucks a gallon when HD was $25-30

For me I use Behr brand from HD, the second down from their top of the line stuff works for me and with veterans discount is around $45 a can

We just recoated the roof of our houseboat - $180/gal for the highly recommended urethane plus $165 to ship 4 gallons. To make it even worse the mixed color was no where near their color chip so not only did we spend a grand on 4 gallons of paint, but it's a light blue vs bright white. Good news is that the paint itself looks like it's going to live up to the hype and I'll just have to deal with a blue roof until we recoat in 5 years.

I remember when $100 got you a 5 gallon bucket.

You think that is expensive, go price a gallon of good quality automotive paint.....get braced!!

Want an another shock. Look at bottom paint for boats.

I know some car and specialty paint costs over $100 per quart. But we're just talking house paint, 3 big old wooden structures and I'm going to need at least 25 gallons.

Why aren't your painters buying the paint for you? They get a big discount. Here all of the painters and companies supply the paint, otherwise they won't warranty it if there are any issues. I get the same discount they get on SW and Emerald exterior paint, 5 gallon buckets were around $225 a bucket.

The painters don't care but actually prefer I buy and pick it up.
I negotiated a 45% business account discount with S-W but even at that their Satin Emerald lists for 112 a gallon or $535 per 5, so $294 with the discount.