# Believe it or not, BEHR Ultra vs BM Aura. Don't hate me.



## rockisland (Mar 23, 2010)

I just got a chance to try some BEHR Ultra paint (self primed). Believe it or not, I find it is so frustrated that the BEHR performs just not even a little worse than Aura.

The HO love some colors from BEHR Ultra. They ask me to paint several BEHR samples and Aura sample on their 2 walls(pure white). I have never tried BEHR before. But it makes me think twice now. It was applied in the same way as Aura was done. I intended to wait for a while between cut-in and roll. It is thick and very good coverage. It has longer open time than Aura. You cannot see any difference between BEHR and Aura in coverage, smoothness and color saturation. BEHR seems even a little bit better in even coverage.

I also tested the washability after 1 day. I got nothing in my cloth. The color is very well locked into the paint film. Aura did same. But one Regal sample gave me lots of green on my cloth.

At the primer side, I can see BEHR is much better than Aura. I just run out of my painter's tape on that day. The HO gave me some normal adhesive tape. I use it to divide one wall into small blocks. And the tape stripes got some paint on them. After I tested the washability 1 day after the painting, I remove the tape from the wall. The BEHR paint is simply adhesive enough to keep itself on the tape without being teared off when I tear the tape off. But the aura paint all fell out in small pieces.

I am still trying to find some good reason for using Aura now. Maybe the color will keep longer? Maybe the sample was not good enough? Maybe the small section is not where aura can show it power? Maybe HD made a trap with something secret to keep the customers? Maybe ......

Help me to find more reason to stick on BM, please!


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## Slingah (Sep 24, 2007)

I just finished a very upscale home. The decorator chose all Behr paints for the ceilings and walls, the trim was B. Moore Aura satin.
I wanted to kick and scream, bitch and moan, cry and complain about how Behr s*cks...blah,blah blah..
Well the Ultra was GREAT on the walls....we used eggshell. Went on nice, burnish resistant quickly and laid down nice. I did prime the new plaster first though.
For the ceilings we used the regular line and it is not a true flat....worked in some areas...others areas I would have liked to use the new waterbourne BM.
For reasons not to use it....I HATE Home Depot. It is not convenient to me. My local BM stores are minutes away from most jobs. I had bad attitudes to contend with and on a Friday I was into a second gallon of a same color and it was off....way off. I had a hard time from them saying it was impossible and almost wouldn't remedy the situation....cost me a day just about. They also gave me a hard time about dropping off a list of paints needed. Not contractor friendly what so ever. This place is for HOMEOWNERS.
I wouldnt use it unless I had to.....and am sure I will soon.


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## WisePainter (Dec 27, 2008)

I lurve my SW, BM is too far away most times, and yes if I have to use it (BEHR, Valspar) I guess I will, it is not the worst thing evar.

Although rarely do I get the opportunity to HAVE to use it, my SW prices are below cost right now on most products.


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## ewingpainting.net (Jun 2, 2008)

What's your below cost?


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## johnthepainter (Apr 1, 2008)

yes, below cost. thats the way to buy stuff.


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## aaron61 (Apr 29, 2007)

Do you mean below retail? I truly doubt they are selling you their paint for less than what it costs them to produce it.IMHO!


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## aaron61 (Apr 29, 2007)

I really have nothing against Behr Ultra or Valspar! Both good paints.I just hate standing in line at the big box.Wastes to much time & the paint costs more than what I would get comparable @ SW.


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## NCPaint1 (Aug 6, 2009)

WisePainter said:


> I lurve my SW, BM is too far away most times, and yes if I have to use it (BEHR, Valspar) I guess I will, it is not the worst thing evar.
> 
> Although rarely do I get the opportunity to HAVE to use it, my SW prices are below cost right now on most products.


I sell below cost all the time, and it was the best decision I ever made. :thumbup: I love selling a product for less than I paid. How else can I keep the low-ballers happy? They under bid a job...its up to me to make up the difference on the materials.

Ummmmm no....:no:


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## Workaholic (Apr 17, 2007)

I would have to make the leap that what Wise meant was his prices from SW are less than Lowes or HD. I could be wrong but I have to think he was not suggesting that SW was losing money when selling him paint.


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## bikerboy (Sep 16, 2007)

aaron61 said:


> I really have nothing against Behr Ultra or Valspar! Both good paints.I just hate standing in line at the big box.Wastes to much time & the paint costs more than what I would get comparable @ SW.


 
The guys that do some remodleing know this but;

 If you have a contractors account at HD you can call or fax your order in and they will pull (or mix in this case) it for you. You also get a break prices.


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## rockisland (Mar 23, 2010)

So far I can get some reason for staying with BM
1) The dealers are more contractor friendly and more professional
2) The cost of the paint(Regal) is almost same with BEHR Ultra here in Canada. We can persuade the HO to use it instead of Aura.
3) No line up most of the time.


Any more?


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## rockisland (Mar 23, 2010)

I also noticed that the BEHR Ultra flat is smoother or much smoother than Aura Matte.

Now I think the Consumer reports is not lying. Just from the performance perspective, BEHR Ultra is at least same with BM Aura if not better. The Aura might have better manufacture quality. But any way they are paints. It does NOT help in the performance even if you add gold into it. On the walls, they perform same. 

I still don't want to believe Ultra is better than Aura. Ridiculous!


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## johnpaint (Sep 20, 2008)

How did you find it when cutting in?


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## VanDamme (Feb 13, 2010)

johnpaint said:


> How did you find it when cutting in?


When I used it, I thought it worked just fine and was actually a decent paint. I cut in the textured walls we have here in the Northwest and it was fine.

I only use Behr when the customer already has Behr on the existing walls and they want the same color on the new walls.


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## mblosik (Jan 3, 2009)

WisePainter said:


> I lurve my SW, BM is too far away most times, and yes if I have to use it (BEHR, Valspar) I guess I will, it is not the worst thing evar.
> 
> Although rarely do I get the opportunity to HAVE to use it, my SW prices are below cost right now on most products.



agreed, behr ultra prem plus is good, actually, (at least the two times i tried it in two colors) having been forced to use it. love sw and ici. ici's too far away most times, though.

9 times out of 10, i'll just have sw custom match the colors...takes minutes and then i can just use the products i want. decorators are merely there to divine their omnisicience upon us peon painters. they've more than likely never applied the paint. and i swear that they just use the same color swatches and color wheel theory that i do when recommending colors.....decorators, the "Newman" of my world. (seinfeld for those unfamiliar. just like madison is the "Newman" of my state Wisconsin. Go Brewers! :thumbsup:


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## Slingah (Sep 24, 2007)

johnpaint said:


> How did you find it when cutting in?


 a bit gummy....ad some H2O....


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## dubinpainting (Feb 16, 2010)

Slingah said:


> a bit gummy....ad some H2O....


Wow, that's the word I was looking for (gummy). I did a ceiling two days ago the home owner provided the paint and it was BHER. It was like painting in really hot weather. The paint kept gumming up on me. It didn't produce a smooth nice cut line like with BM products.
I hate :2guns:BHER paint!


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## AztecPainting (Jan 28, 2010)

Behr again eh? :no: Hmmm... Not good  not good... :whistling2: Behr is way too expensive for what it is and I hate being in line waiting for useless and slow people to mix my paint, also if I ask questions sometimes the person at the paint department don't even have the knowledge to give me an answer not even to just BSme... HD don't give me contractor discounts (contractor prices). So, not discounts not business... I don't wanna be negative about it but I've used Behr working for a GC for over a year and I still didn't like it, I think that just helped me to hate it even more... IMO


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## chrisn (Jul 15, 2007)

No comment:whistling2: except

"better to leave the walls bare than put Behr on the walls":yes::thumbup::yes:


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## rockisland (Mar 23, 2010)

johnpaint said:


> How did you find it when cutting in?


Ultra is thick too, like Aura. I used a stiffer Corona brush to cut-in. It is a sample test. only about 4x4 section. I cut-in all and rolled it. I don't think it's harder to use. At least on small sections.
CR is also saying the Aura smoothness is not good. I think they are right.

The biggest finding by chance is that Aura's so-called built-in primer is definitely not as good as Ultra's. It's not sticky at all.

BEHR Ultra make me think twice when I need to provide quality job to the customer as long as they pay the extra time I might waste at HD.


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## WisePainter (Dec 27, 2008)

Workaholic said:


> I would have to make the leap that what Wise meant was his prices from SW are less than Lowes or HD. I could be wrong but I have to think he was not suggesting that SW was losing money when selling him paint.


They make it up on HO's, I get below cost on a few key coatings that I use regularly.

I also get 2 free shirts every time I go in...


oooooooh I am that good indeed!


yay me!


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## jack pauhl (Nov 10, 2008)

Slingah said:


> I just finished a very upscale home. The decorator chose all Behr paints for the ceilings and walls, the trim was B. Moore Aura satin.
> I wanted to kick and scream, bitch and moan, cry and complain about how Behr s*cks...blah,blah blah..
> Well the Ultra was GREAT on the walls....we used eggshell. Went on nice, burnish resistant quickly and laid down nice. I did prime the new plaster first though.
> For the ceilings we used the regular line and it is not a true flat....worked in some areas...others areas I would have liked to use the new waterbourne BM.
> ...


You made a very valid point about dealing with Home Depot. I want to pull my hair out every time I go there for paint.

RE: BEHR ULTRA Satin, amazing stuff. I just painted a bath yesterday a dark chocolate milk color over white semi-gloss easy in 2 coats. My first cut over semi-gloss was solid using a Wooster Silver Tip brush. The rolled first coat however showed a bit of the white semi-gloss through the dried film. 

It lays out nice. I am putting together a review on BEHR which I should have wrapped up this week. I saw BEHR ULTRA do something I've never seen in 25 years of painting and I'll talk about about it then because I think its what makes or breaks paints with a sheen. BEHR ULTRA is great paint and great to work with its unfortunate what you have to deal with to get it.


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## DeanV (Apr 18, 2007)

I helped friends out this weekend that bought Behr Ultra. Only tried two different colors. The chocolate brown was very thick, really too thick for my taste. The more neutral beige color was a little too thin. Not very consistent viscosity between bases. I did not get to see the product completely dry when I left, so final opinion will have to wait until then.

Aura flows and levels nicer off of a roller (and probably goes further at least compared to the thick brown gallon).


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## bikerboy (Sep 16, 2007)

Slingah said:


> I just finished a very upscale home. The decorator chose all Behr paints for the ceilings and walls, the trim was B. Moore Aura satin.
> I wanted to kick and scream, bitch and moan, cry and complain about how Behr s*cks...blah,blah blah..
> Well the Ultra was GREAT on the walls....we used eggshell. Went on nice, burnish resistant quickly and laid down nice. I did prime the new plaster first though.
> For the ceilings we used the regular line and it is not a true flat....worked in some areas...others areas I would have liked to use the new waterbourne BM.
> ...


I know most just paint so it may not apply. But if you have a contractor account at hd, you can email or fax your order in the day before and it's waiting when you get there. Doesn't do squat for mistinted paint.


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## NCPaint1 (Aug 6, 2009)

bikerboy said:


> I know most just paint so it may not apply. But if you have a contractor account at hd, you can email or fax your order in the day before and it's waiting when you get there. Doesn't do squat for mistinted paint.


Wow thats something new for them? We have been doing for over 20 years :whistling2:


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## chrisn (Jul 15, 2007)

NCPaint1 said:


> Wow thats something new for them? We have been doing for over 20 years :whistling2:


 
You have been painting Behr for 20 years and are here admitting it?
That takes some brass balls:notworthy:


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## NCPaint1 (Aug 6, 2009)

chrisn said:


> You have been painting Behr for 20 years and are here admitting it?
> That takes some brass balls:notworthy:


Ohhhh, I thought they were talking about mis-tinting paint....... 


I just think its funny, every time one of the Big Boxes does something, everyone thinks its so great, and new idea. I have been delivering, visiting jobs, premixing orders, custom matching, etc....etc...for years. I guess they do have me beat though. I just cant have all part time, minimum wage employees


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## Diversers (Aug 2, 2009)

I know how you guys hate Behr but I use it a lot and more people is familiar with it than Aura. That Behr Ultra is a good product. And I use there Reg. Flat enamel all the time, I only pay 13.00 bucks for it.


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## chrisn (Jul 15, 2007)

Diversers said:


> I know how you guys hate Behr but I use it a lot and more people is familiar with it than Aura. That Behr Ultra is a good product. And I use there Reg. Flat enamel all the time, I only pay 13.00 bucks for it.


 
you get what you pay for,I would hate to be one of your clients


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## bikerboy (Sep 16, 2007)

Used the Ultra yesterday (flat/matte). Painted a Taupe over a pale yellow. Covered really well. It's a nice product. The guys liked working with it. I'd use it again if the customer wanted it.

NCPaint: Yes, other guys let you fax and email orders to them. Most aren't aware that HD offer's that service. Just trying to be helpful to the members.


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## NCPaint1 (Aug 6, 2009)

I know


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