DO NOT USE Behr paints!

I think it may have been a false alarm, I put up some pics in this post that show the issue might be with my projector or something, as the same hotspot shows even in my BOC.

i used the behr premium plus self priming interior flat base 1050 silver screen 770e-2 mixed 9/20/12 and this stuff is as flat as can be. i have noticed zero hot spotting. i have no experience on what a good screen can look like other then in a movie theatre, but after watching TV for decades this looks pretty good to my eyes. admittedly i wanted a quick and easy soloution but now my wife looks at me funny when i talk about buying a real sccreen and says why?

curttard said:

I think it may have been a false alarm, I put up some pics in this post that show the issue might be with my projector or something, as the same hotspot shows even in my BOC.

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Thanks for posting that curttard, but I think I'll keep the moratorium on the use of Behr paint until I can check them out myself; and that might be a while. Better safe than sorry.

bobs77vet said:

i used the behr premium plus self priming interior flat base 1050 silver screen 770e-2 mixed 9/20/12 and this stuff is as flat as can be. i have noticed zero hot spotting. i have no experience on what a good screen can look like other then in a movie theatre, but after watching TV for decades this looks pretty good to my eyes. admittedly i wanted a quick and easy soloution but now my wife looks at me funny when i talk about buying a real sccreen and says why?

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Great to know! :T May I ask how many coats of paint it took until you got an even appearance over the whole screen? The problem people are having with the #1850 is a significant lack of hiding ability even after 4 or 5 coats.

it was new drywall with one coat of behr sealer drywall primer and two coats of the sliver screen...it was base 1050 i could not see 1850 listed any where. i just got up close and personal with the screen looking at it and i can see where a third coat may be necessary in one or two small spots. i cant tell if i missed a spot or since we are now finishing the rest of the drywall we brushed against the flat and scuffed it. we used about 1 quart for 12' x 8' wall. I have watched a lot of movies on this and it has to be really close to a good quality screen.

bobs77vet said:

it was new drywall with one coat of behr sealer drywall primer and two coats of the sliver screen...it was base 1050 i could not see 1850 listed any where. i just got up close and personal with the screen looking at it and i can see where a third coat may be necessary in one or two small spots. i cant tell if i missed a spot or since we are now finishing the rest of the drywall we brushed against the flat and scuffed it. we used about 1 quart for 12' x 8' wall. I have watched a lot of movies on this and it has to be really close to a good quality screen.

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Behr #1050 is their flat latex paint and #1850 is their flat latex ENAMEL paint. The enamel should only have the tiniest bit of additional gloss.

I see that Behr is now saying their Premium Plus paints are "self priming" to match their Premium Plus ULTRA paints being " paint & primer in one". It is also now "low VOC". These changes could have changed how the paints work. Although it seems the #1050 you used is covering as well as Behr paint had done in the past. A 12' x 8' fall is 96 square feet. I would have used at least a quart and a half to paint that as a screen, and probably closer to 3 quarts; but that is just me and it is a long way from a hard and fast rule.

A good DIY screen takes a back-seat to NO commercial screen unless you are talking about the ultra high dollar specialty screens like the DNP Supernove, and these are niche screens to be sure. :T

i didnt use a third coat at the time since i had the rest of the drywall to finish and i wanted the final coat on the screen to be the last coat of any paint that i painted. as for the low VOC i can attest to that fact this was not a smelly paint. we are going to use this product for the rest of the walls and cieling. the darkest i can get the boss to go for the cieling is the same gray as the screen, she has agreed to darker walls probalby some shade of red. i guess we will give it a try and see how it works with the screen.

Interesting... very interesting... I say this as after I redid my screen with this new Behr, I noticed the hot spot. At first I thought I was going nuts and it was merely a new subsurface (MDF versus drywall), new paint, and, a new bulb in the projector. And, I simply had to get used to it. But, after reading this it makes me absolutely certain that there is in fact a difference in this paint compared to the "old" Behr. The roller marks are also more apparant from oblique angles on mixed color/moving shots and definatly apparant head-on. Whereas before, yeah, they were there but only at freak look-angles.

This may also be the reason why adding a levelling compound lead to misfortune and frustration.

That being said, I did send Mechman of my latest samples with the new Behr paint, one with and without the levelling compound. I'll send him a PM!

Thanks for doing the testing Don - really appreciate it.

I did find out that Farm and Fleet (not sure if they are Midwest only) carries Valspar paints as well - after I made the drive to Lowe's of course....

ALMFamily said:

Thanks for doing the testing Don - really appreciate it.

I did find out that Farm and Fleet (not sure if they are Midwest only) carries Valspar paints as well - after I made the drive to Lowe's of course....

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Yeah I've seen Valspar at Fleet Farm as well. I've never tested them though. They are a different variety than the Valspar sold at Lowe's. I've tested PPG from Menards as well which should be close to you. But only for BW™.

I'm in Canada and would like to paint a DIY screen for Christmas. What alternatives are there to Behr's 1850 for us canucks? In case it matters, I'm opting for C&S Ultra.

Thanks for all the work you guys put into this!

bobs77vet said:

well heres my 1 year update.....we originally used the Behr silver screen as a quick and easy method to get up and running in the theatre room and really liked it, the boss vetoed black ceilings and a black border around the screen so we decided on a grey and dark red paint scheme. I used the Behr 1050 silver screen paint and the similar product in the red i believe they were both self priming. I really like it and have no plans to change the screen paint. so if you are thinking of a similar paint scheme I can say this combination has worked well for me. I might have painted the screen wall one additional time since my last post as the very last wall we painted.

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Glad the Behr paint worked out for you!

Don, what's your take on Sherman Williams paint for a DIY screen? I seen a review somewhere that said their pro classic smooth enamel looked better than a Stuart studiotek 100. Any experience with the SW?