Paint Costs: Why paints by the same brand cost different.
You may have heard painting professionals use the term grade for different paints; mid-grade, high-grade, etc. But you may not have known what the main difference is between them and how it affects your paint job.
The most common reason paints have different costs is something called Titanium dioxide. The more of it, the higher the grade of paint and the more a paint will cost.
Titanium dioxide is a powder that gives the paint three main things: Whiteness, Opacity, and Longevity.
Whiteness: Often Titanium dioxide is called the “whitest white” or “perfect white” by painting professionals. It’s the color that paint starts out as before the pigments are added.
Opacity: Sometimes call hiding ability, this is the ability to see through your paint. The more Titanium dioxide the higher the opacity, the higher the opacity the harder it is to see through. This determines its ability to hide things like older colors, drywall marks, and wall imperfections. For instance, to achieve the same cover-up of an old paint job you may need several coats of a low titanium dioxide paint but just one coat of a higher concentration paint.
Longevity: Titanium dioxide is a crystal structure so the more you have of it, the stronger your paint can be. Low cost, low Titanium dioxide paints might only last you two or three years before needing to be repainted. While a high concentration paint (that initially started off more expensive) may last you five or six years, saving you money in the long run.
