Latex is terrible paint for anything you care about. It's soft, it can't be prepped well for the next coat when it gets old; it takes months to "cure" even though it dries in an hour; it does not, by any means, look or feel anything like a good oil paint, in fact, in humid weather it can get very sticky, and there's virtually no way to get it to totally level out into that classic "satin impervo" look no matter how much Floetrol you put in it or how expensive a brush you use, though if you have a painter skilled in laying on latex they can get close, though with significantly more effort, or if you spry it, but spraying forces you to reduce it so much it degrades the paint. Downsides: oil does take overnight to dry, the solvents are not healthy to breathe; cleaning brushes takes an inordinate amount of thinner and slop buckets. Upsides: if you hire a good painter, you'll get a finish head and shoulders above latex. If I were doing a really nice interior, I'd be reluctant to slop latex on all that nice wood detail. As a former painting contractor, I can tell latex a mile away. I personally hate using oil, but I would never defend latex as great, or even particularly good, paint. Also note that if you can even get Ben Moore Satin Impervo oil in gallons, it has been reduced to high quality sludge through the removal of a lot of the solvents (VOCs) that made is so good. So be prepared to doctor it up with thinner or conditioners (Penetrol). The Impervo they sell in quarts to get past the VOC laws ("for metal only") is actually thin enough to paint with right out of the can. AS for yellowing, it does yellow with time but we're talking 15 to 20 years time--I have done over many many oil-based interiors, and the yellowing was kind of nice, if you were to ask me. I don't know what happened with the commenter above, no idea. Definitely not the norm.

Satin Impervo comes in oil or water based. Where I live in Ohio however, oil is no longer carried in gallons and no paint store can tell you how long the quarts will even be on the shelves. VOC laws are taking it away. Your painter that uses water based alkyd is ahead of the curve. I have used 2 SW water based alkyds. Pro classic and Pro Mar 200. They're both fantastic. Much lower VOC. They feel great, look great, and are tough products. Lots of painters just use a water based acrylic on the trim anymore which is fine. Oil will definitely yellow over time. Some oils will yellow a lot. It is still good stuff but it is not by any means above a water based alkyd. You will get a great finish with anything as long as the painter is good. I would let him use what he wants and feels comfortable with using. Especially if they have had good results with it.

Perfect timing for me, this thread. We've replaced our 2'x11' kitchen bench seating area (termite damage -- caught early, but still...), and I just finished priming with Stix. In all my reading, I didn't anticipate how thick the primer would be, fresh out of the can -- my stir stick, jammed into the primer, stood at attention without issue! I contacted INSLX customer svc and was told I could thin with water. I did so, but it was still too thick to level well (I didn't want to exceed the amount of water recommended). I had to sand a fair bit to knock down the ridges. (I've repainted every door, spindle, baseboard and trim in this 26 y/o house of ours by now, using Lowes' American Tradition semi-gloss, and always got a smooth finish.) I have a can of Cabinet Coat at the ready, but am concerned about obtaining a flat finish: foam roller vs quality brush. How does one keep a wet edge when painting such a large swath, even if the paint levels well? (And I've read CC dries rather quickly.) I'm crossing fingers that CC will be the proper consistency (after a good stirring), so I won't have to worry about buying an extender (such as Floetrol or whatever INSLX might recommend). Whizz high-density foam rollers were recommended on one DIYer's site. Though, she was painting only cabinet door surfaces and wasn't dealing with the surface area of a wall-to-wall bench.

We painted our cabinet doors, interior doors, exterior doors, and all our trimwork with SW Pro Classic Latex. So far (2 years) it has held up and is very scrubable, which is very important in our messy household. I also enjoy painting with it because it goes on so smooth and creamy. SW has sample paint pints for $4.99 where I live. If I have one of their coupons, they let me use it for those as well.