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Builder-Grade vs Premium Interior Paint: What $35 and $90 a Gallon Each Buy, Washability, Coverage, VOCs, and Where the Cheap Can Is Fine
Drywall, Taping & Painting
Builder-Grade or Premium Paint? What the Extra $55 a Gallon Buys, Where It Is Worth It, and Why It Is Still Only 15% of the Job
Every paint company sells three tiers and calls them something different. The bottom one is what production builders spray on 400 houses a year; the top one is what the showroom wants you to buy. The honest answer is that the top tier hides better, washes better and touches up better, and that on a 2,000 sq ft house the whole difference is about $1,200 in an $18,000 painting job. The labour is the money. A $90 gallon rolled badly over unprimed drywall looks worse than a $35 gallon applied properly. Here is what each tier buys and where to spend.
The tiers
| Tier | Examples | Retail per gallon | What it is good at | Where it falls down |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Contractor / builder grade | Benjamin Moore Ultra Spec 500, Sherwin-Williams ProMar 200, Dulux Diamond Ultra Spec equivalents, hardware-store house brands | $35 to $50 | Sprays well, covers in two coats over primer, cheap. Perfectly adequate on ceilings and in flat. | Scuffs and burnishes when washed, touch-ups show, less hiding so dark colours take three coats, flat sheens only really. |
| Mid-grade | Benjamin Moore Regal Select, Sherwin-Williams SuperPaint, Dulux Lifemaster, Behr Premium Plus Ultra | $60 to $75 | Washable in eggshell and matte, good hiding, decent touch-up. The sensible default for walls in a house people live in. | Not much. It is the sweet spot. |
| Premium | Benjamin Moore Aura, Sherwin-Williams Emerald, Behr Marquee | $85 to $110 | Best hiding (dark colours in two coats), most washable, best colour retention, best touch-up, lowest VOC. The matte finishes are the ones that wash. | Price, and some lines are fussier to apply; lap marks if the painter is slow. |
What the money is buying
Hiding. More titanium dioxide and better resins mean the second coat actually covers. With a dark colour, premium is two coats and contractor grade is three, which is where the premium pays for itself in labour.
Washability and scrub resistance. The resin. Contractor-grade eggshell shows a shiny patch where you scrubbed a fingerprint off; premium matte does not. In a hallway with children or a kitchen wall, this is the whole argument.
Touch-up. Premium paints touch up nearly invisibly from the same can; cheap ones flash at every touch-up. Over five years this matters more than anything.
Sheen choice. The cheap tiers really only do flat well. If you want a washable matte, you are in the mid or premium tier. Sheen.
VOCs. All tiers are low-VOC now by regulation; premium lines are lowest, which matters if you are moving in the day after. Ventilate for a week regardless. Health Canada’s indoor air guidance is linked below.
Where I spend and where I do not
- Ceilings: contractor-grade flat ceiling paint. Nobody washes a ceiling. Hiding and no spatter are what matter.
- Bedrooms and closets: mid-grade. Regal or SuperPaint class in matte or eggshell. Fine for thirty years.
- Kitchen, hall, mudroom, kids’ rooms, bathrooms: premium matte or eggshell. The washability is real and these are the walls that get washed.
- Dark colours anywhere: premium. Two coats instead of three pays for the can.
- Trim: a proper enamel, which is its own line, and not the wall paint at any tier. Trim.
The arithmetic: a 2,000 sq ft house takes about 25 gallons for walls. Mid-grade to premium is $25 a gallon at trade price: $625. Contractor to mid is about the same. The whole spread from bottom to top is $1,200 on an $18,000 job. The painter’s skill is worth more than that in either direction.
Questions people ask
Is expensive paint really worth it?
On the walls that get washed, touched and lived against, yes: hiding, washability and touch-up are all better and the difference on a house is about $1,000. On ceilings and closets, no. The painter’s prep and application matter more than the tier.
What paint do builders use?
Contractor-grade flat and eggshell, sprayed, usually one colour throughout, because it covers and it is cheap. That is what a builder’s “paint allowance” buys unless you upgrade it. Allowances.
Does premium paint need fewer coats?
Over a primed wall, it is still two coats for an even finish. Where it saves a coat is on dark or saturated colours, which take three coats of cheap paint and two of premium.
Which is better, Benjamin Moore or Sherwin-Williams?
Tier for tier they are equivalent, and most painters have a preference based on which store is closer and which rep looks after them. Pick the painter, use the line he knows, and specify the tier by name.
Price the tiers on your house
The painting calculator has a paint-grade option so you can see what premium adds on your rooms. The paint and primer calculator works out the gallons.
Sources and further reading
- Benjamin Moore Canada: product data sheets for the primers and paints named on these pages: coverage per gallon, recoat times and the right primer for new drywall.
- Sherwin-Williams Canada: the other paint line most Ontario painters use; the data sheets say the same things in different words.
- Volatile organic compounds in indoor air: Health Canada. What the VOC on the paint can means and why you ventilate a freshly painted house in winter.
