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Writer's pictureLucas Hall

Why paint two coats?

In my search for high quality people, materials and processes, I stumbled upon the question of how many coats of paint are needed on a job. Some guys said they only ever painted one coat, because that’s all people wanted to pay for, I didn’t like that answer. Others painted a standard 2 coats; and others had hybrids of thick trim and coat and a “half” on the main body of a wall. So what’s “right” The answer to this is, it varies. But here is a good summary on why.


We re-roofed, re-sided and painted this beautiful home, we also rebuilt the deck and added the beautiful staircase

One coat may work well on something like repainting a flat white ceiling in flat white. Or a white house with many layers of white, getting one layer of white to freshen it up. And depending on the painter and skill, painting a house the same color over allows for one coat. However, one coat always leaves speckling. This is where dots of speckles of the old color shine through the new paint. Rarely do I offer this scope to a customer, and only if it’s a great value for their dollar or financial constraints.



My typical minimum standard is 2 coats. This typically gives the surface six sigma level coverage (99.999%) and since my painter has already covered for overspray, brought ladders, and has painted it once, the second coat only adds about 50% of additional cost over one coat, at what I consider to be double the value. It will still fade, but protect the surface, especially outside.



In some situations, more than two coats are required. If the surface to be painted is bare/unprimed to begin with. We need to start with a primer first. Other times, for covering over drastic colors like deep red, we have to paint a darkened primer on first. And still for other particular situations, we have to paint 3-4 coats of picky colors and very high, or very low sheens. This is just or get the finish consistent.



Note on sheen choice. On most exteriors and normal interior walls, I recommend a satin finish. It looks great, and doesn’t shine back at you. The sheen also makes the paint job last longer than flat paint. Touch points like bathroom and kitchen walls should be semi gloss just to make cleaning soap or food spills much easier. And trim, which receives the most touches should be a gloss enamel or a high gloss paint, else, it will wear the extremely fast. The gloss finishes are also very easily cleaned.



Note on Brand of paint and even paint line up selected. I’ve used the cheapest big box paint and the most expensive Sherwin Williams Duration and everything in between. For a homeowner paint a room in their house, the top shelf of any big box store will typically work just fine. And technically, you might be fine with two coats of the same exterior paint to paint your house exterior. I personally have landed on Sherwin Williams Super paint for my standard for interior and exterior painting. It’s easy to work with, easy to roll, easy to spray and is cost competitive with the top shelf of any big box store (with my contractor discount). And the cost of the paint is still small in comparison to the labor of painting, so good paint is always a good value.




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