Charlotte, North Carolina
Insul X Vanity
Kitchen cabinet refinishing is a major deal for homeowners as well as us so we are discussing Benjamin Moore Insul-X since it is wiedly used among painters. Painting clients cabinets is a sensitive project especially when the homeowner is on the fence of replacing their cabinets or going with a new look as in painting their cabinets. So we have decided to try out different projects to see which products will give the best finish as well as durability over a period of time. Giving our clients the best and most cost effective options for their kitchen cabinets is out biggest goal.
We have been seeing a product Insul X Cabinet Coat which is a product sold by Benjamin Moore and can be found in some Home Depot stores. I first would like to say, I wouldn’t buy this product from Home Depot. The reason why I wouldn’t buy the product from Home Depot is they don’t have the same colorant system as Benjamin Moore has. Benjamin Moore has a green colorant system that tints colors to vibrant colors that only they can at Benjamin Moore and the colorant system is a green eco friendly tint. As far as I know Benjamin Moore is the only company that has green products before tinting and after tinting. Most products on the market that are green paint products are green until the paint gets tinted to a custom color. The product in it’s stock format is actually green. Benjamin Moore offers green products in their stock products as well as after being tinted which is a big deal for a lot of clients. You will not get the same exact color tinted from a Benjamin Moore swatch at a different paint provider. If you don’t believe it, buy a sample pint from Benjamin Moore and have any other paint provider try to match the color exactly and the colors will be off some. We have tried and now I am sold on the Benjamin Moore’s colorant technology.
Insul-x Cabinet Coat is a pretty good product. It’s designed to be a coat product if sprayed and it doesn’t require a primer coat if the surface has already be painted or stained with a urethane sealer. We alway use a premium primer before we use any products but after speaking to other painters, they claim that they haven’t had any failures using Insul-X over previously finished cabinets. They said they following the typical steps of prepping and applied the cabinet coating by Insul X with no problems at all and I am not surprised. I don’t have those type of guts and I am not into cutting corners to give a product a chance to fail. Below is a recent picture of cabinets that we painted using Insul X Cabinet Coat.
Insul X Cabinets Pure White
I like Insul-X because it gives a beautiful finish that shines like a factory finish coating and it’s very durable. It resists scuffs, stains and chipping. So you can get a really good cabinet painting finish for a reasonable price. The only issue I have is the dry time and the curing time. The product takes days to fully cure, but it gives our clients semi-immediate use of their cabinets. You can do everything you want with your cabinets. The cabinet doors don’t really stick to the frames like other paints, the only thing you really can’t do is clean your cabinets for days and it’s recommended that you don’t do any heavy frying after the paint project is completed. InsulX sands well to a smooth finish between coats and it is very easy to work with. This product can be an easy do it yourself project for brushing and rolling as well as professional finishing for spraying. The product sprays well and evenly. The gloss level isn’t over the top for satin and it’s reasonable hard once it dries. We haven’t had any problems using this product.
For us, we prefer the industry standard paints that we use to give our clients immediate access to their cabinets and offers excellent scratch resistance and washability at completion. We use some of the best products for cabinet painting offer through industry standard testing. The products we use give close to glass smooth finishes and matches factory durability at completion. We are able to install hardware and scratch test the cabinets once everything is installed and the paint has dried to a hard enamel immediately. The produ ts we use are much more expensive but we don’t need a lot since most cabinets can be completed with a gallon or two of paint. The products are relatively inexpensive with the durablity you get and the length of time the material will last. The cost of material is usually under 2oo bucks when you can get Insul-X for under for 2 gallons. The products we use offer a faster completion period since the products we use dry in less than a couple hours when Insul-X takes a few hours minimum. So we have faster turnarounds which means you will get your kitchen back faster.
