I have a small townhouse unit of approx. 2000 square feet of wall space not including doors. I wanted to paint my home and my landlady gave me a 5 gallon pail of interior latex semi-gloss and told me that it will do me 2 coats of paint for the entire unit. I should point out that the underlying paint is dark blue. When I read the side of the canister it told me it would paint my entire unit 1 coat and when I told her that I would not get 2 coats out of it she said that the painting contractors do when they come in to paint she gives them one 5 gallon pail and they paint the entire unit (the ones she refers to are approx 3000 sq. ft. of wall space)2 coats through out. How can this be? Am I crazy here or what?
Answer:
The paint can should have instructions on it and they'll tell you how many square feet it should cover. The manufacturers also allow a few percentage points for the novice painter. Diluting paint is one of the ways to get more mileage out of it so you might check that out but I doubt that diluted paint will cover blue even with two coats.
