What was the pre-painted color you planned on having?
So far, I am glad SW has reformulated. I am in the process of using the reformulated brand and it seems much better.

Is there a reason other than the reformulation issue that you mentioned that causes you to dislike Sherwin Williams paints? Their Duration exterior brand has the longest warranty that we were able to find....guaranteed for as long as you own your home.

I just checked the SW website again, and in fact almost all of their exterior paints have at least a 15 year warranty.

Duration- Lifetime Homeowner's Warranty
SuperPaint- 25 year warranty
A 100- 15 year warranty

I don't dislike Sherwin Williams. I just hadn't done any research on exterior paints because I didn't think I was going to have to paint. I checked Consumer Reports recent exterior paint report and they don't mention Sherwin Williams. That surprised me. Then I learned SW recently re-formulated. I read that SW's Duration WAS excellent but anytime one reformulates a paint, it takes awhile before anyone can really say how the new formula holds up. I'm not saying SW's new formulation is good/bad/or indifferent. It may be absolutely fantastic. I just can't find any reviews because it is apparently too newly on the market. So, just asking for advice about possible alternatives.

As for color, once I pick a good brand, I'll either pick whatever colors (actually 3 different colors b/c my house is a Victorian farmhouse) are closest to the ones I had originally wanted in the Certainteed prepainted siding or go with an entirely different color scheme.

At this point, quality is more important that particular colors.

We used certainteed prefinished siding. However, they didn't order enough siding so we had to get more and could only get the primed at that time because of a big backlog at the prefinisher, so we purchased the paint from the prefinisher--it was the same paint that the pre finisher used on our prefinished siding. I'd check and see if you can buy the paint from the prefinisher. It will be more expensive that SW, but my DH thought it was really good paint. Of course, the prefinisher may have sold the paint to us only because we had already purchased prefinished siding and they weren't able to provided us with additional siding when we needed it.

There are no secret formulas for making good latex paint; the higher the quality of the ingredients the better the paint but paint companies modify their materials constantly so it is difficult to know which is the best.

I have come to rely on Benjamin Moore, not that I know their paint is better at all times but because the best painter I know says it is consistently better. But the more important issue is how the surface is prepared. Be sure to remove all fiber-cement dust and don't wait too long after installing it. No surface gets better with time for receiving paint.

We have been using SW Duration on our Nichiha fiber cement and I have been very pleased. I will say it takes a full 2 coats -- but then again, I've always been one to rely on a full two coats of paint no matter what. I've painted both Nichiha and Hardie and find that both take paint very easily.

As we've been installing the siding ourselves, we paint one coat prior to installation. After caulking and a light soap wash, I paint the final coat.

Good luck!

Factory applied paint is usually sprayed on and sometimes heat set under controlled moisture conditions. Make sure it is appropriate for field application.

Here is a link that might be useful: paint rating puzzle

Duration claims to be a one coat paint but I noticed it took me two coats to get everything covered.It is extremely thick.

I prefer the Duration over SW Super Paint which separates too quick and smells like ammonia.

bevangel,

We went with Cabot Pro VT solid acrylic stain on our Certainteed cement board. We had several recommendations to go with a stain versus a paint for the cement siding. We like the Cabot stain, creamy and goes on nicely. For best results, they recommend two coats, which we did. But a couple of sides of the house went from last fall to this summer before they got that second coat and it still looked good unless you got really close.

On three previous cedar sided houses we used Sherwin Williams and it is also a good product. So I have nothing against SW, but can understand your concern if there has been a reformulation.

Good luck in your decision.

Jill

Here is a link that might be useful: Cabot Website

Thanks everybody. And, after reading all the links (especially the one MightyAnvil posted) I'm more confused than ever!

It looks like paint manufacturers change their formulations before enough time ever passes for anybody to even figure out if the old formula really held up as advertised or not. One has to hope that no company would go from a better formula to a worse one and that the reason for the constant shifts in ratings is because the various companies are leapfrogging over one another with their new formulations. If that is the case, we should eventually reach the point where every paint lasts 100 years or more. HAH!

More likely, companies change formulas as various ingredients get more or less expensive so they can maximize profits. (I can just imagine some company pencil-pusher thinking, "Let's see now, if we use cheaper ingredients, we'll make more profit but only until our reputation starts to suffer and we begin losing market share. So, just how long can we slide using this cheap formulation before we have to start using good ones again so we can advertise 'Reformulated to last 25% longer!' If we play this just right, we can make money coming and going!")

Beginning to think paint could be a "ya pays yer money and ya takes yer chances" kind of deal with the only real info available regarding quality being that much more expensive paints are USUALLY better than really cheap ones.

Dixiedoodle, did you find copies of SW's actual warranties posted somewhere on their website? I looked but couldn't find them. Just the basic descriptions (eg."25 years") but not the actual warranty language with all the various exclusionary language that is always included.

We used 2 coats of BM exterior satin, I think it is. We use BM for everything. DH won't warrant any work for customers paint jobs for durability or washability if they ask him to use another brand of paint. BM has always served us well.