# Black paint cheap?



## mgrmax (Nov 22, 2006)

I need a little help folks. I was at the depot the other day and they want $20 a gallon for black paint. Anyone have a cheaper way to get black paint?


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## heresjohnny (Feb 15, 2006)

What do you need the paint for? How much do you need? Americas Finest is HD's cheapo brand, you should be able to get black for less than $20, if interior latex is okay. A gallon of flat black latex goes a long way, and is a lot cheaper than getting other types of paint (spray paint, acrylics, etc) if you need that much. I had a can last 2 seasons when I was building a small haunted house for a town Halloween party. If you need a smaller amount, Michaels, Wal-Mart and other places have smaller bottles of Acrylic paint for $1 and up.


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## Zombie-F (Apr 12, 2004)

I've heard of people buying cans of oops black paint real cheap. Ask around at the paint departments at your local hardware stores and home improvement centers if they have any cans of mis-tinted black paint.


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## widowsbluff (May 24, 2006)

Westlakes has a contractors grade paint, 10 bucks a gallon; that is as cheap as I have found it.


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## mgrmax (Nov 22, 2006)

Thanks for the info! I went to the local ACO and they were clearing old paint so the nice lady tinted up a couple gallons of paint for $6 a pop


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## BudMan (Mar 6, 2007)

The guy at the depot told me that the only difference between exterior and interior paint is the addition of mildewcide. I don't know for sure, but figured I pass that along.


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## fg4432 (Sep 18, 2007)

*Not really black but really dark grey*

Mis-tints at HD, $5 and as long as you get a color that can be easily tinted to dark grey or almost black, lighting and darkness should take care of the rest. Just picked up one yesterday.

Going to see how far it goes this year so I might end up getting one more.


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## Dark Lord (Jul 25, 2007)

BudMan said:


> The guy at the depot told me that the only difference between exterior and interior paint is the addition of mildewcide. I don't know for sure, but figured I pass that along.


ext has a higher binder & pigment with UV stabilizers as well as mildewcide.Int costs a little less,but not by much. If you go to a paint store & get a bottle of black tint additive, it's concentrated & alot goes a long way,so several drops will darken up any gray or off white paint to black. If you add enough tint you can black any color paint,green,red, you may see a hint of that color,but it will so dark that unless you have it next to a black color,you won't know the difference,especially at nite.


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## The_Caretaker (Mar 6, 2007)

Also while talking to one of the associates at HD I found out that certian color tints can neutralize other colors, to give you a true gray. Alos you can't get a true black using a white base paint.


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## dave the dead (Jan 31, 2007)

Stopped by my Local HD to check this out, and they were blowing out their mistints....picked up a few gallons , including one that the nice lady blackened up for me, for $1 a gallon! That was just too much fun!


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## heresjohnny (Feb 15, 2006)

This is really valuable info, didn't know you could get black (even if it's only mostly black ) so cheap, thanks! Off to HD I go.


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## Frighteners Entertainment (Jan 24, 2006)

Let's see, it took me aprox 12 gals of flat black paint to cover a 1200 sqft Haunt , not sure how many 4x8 sheets of plywoods it covered?


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## ruafraid (Jan 3, 2006)

Like the others during the year I look at the HD and Lowes for the oops paint for anything black or grey hey $ 5.00 a gallon is great. I don't find black very often but I do find a few during the year. I also have bought black at WalMart paint they mix it there the color is black Ink and it was $ 11.00 per gallon last year I have not bought any this year.


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## fg4432 (Sep 18, 2007)

*The key to finding anything for Halloween...*

Is to look all year long, starting Nov 1 through Oct 28!

Mis-tints for $1, dang, I would have bought all they had as paint is always a good thing to have too much of when designing/building a haunt on the other 364 days of the year when we aren't doing much.


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## Lagrousome (Apr 12, 2007)

fg4432 said:


> the other 364 days of the year when we aren't doing much.


?????
Haunting 101.......the other 364 days of the year will be used for building/designing props, dumpster diving, garage sailing, idea stealing~oops, I mean "borrowing", forum browsing, etc., etc., etc., 
Not doing much? Hehehehehehehe LOL


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## dave the dead (Jan 31, 2007)

I talked to my HD paint expert yesterday, and was given this tip.....shop for mistints on Mondays (or early in the week) because they usually get most of their returns during the weekend. She also took down my name and number to call when they get darker colors in that can easily be turned to black.


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## tcarter (Aug 18, 2006)

Menards carries a brand called Conco
http://www.concopaints.com/datasheets/flats.htm
It may be available elsewhere.
They make a premixed black. I have bought this, and had other paints tinted black and the Conco is by far the best dark rich flat black I have ever used. It's about $12 or $13 bucks a gallon, not a mistint $1 find, but still a good price for a gallon of exterior paint.


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## Lagrousome (Apr 12, 2007)

dave the dead said:


> She also took down my name and number to call when they get darker colors in that can easily be turned to black.


Sure she took it down to call you when they get in some other colors! Sounds like you may have a stalker now!


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## bluebledthesea (Sep 18, 2007)

I picked up all my Halloween for wicked cheap at Walmart yesterday. It seemed like all the colors people reject were exactly what I needed! I'll check the receipt, but they weren't more than $20 combined.

Gallon of dark gray
Quart of corpse brown
Quart of black
Quart of light gray
Quart of mossy green


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## bluebledthesea (Sep 18, 2007)

Halloween paint, that is. Is there a post edit button?


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## fg4432 (Sep 18, 2007)

Lagrousome

I was completely fecitious as the other 364 I am idea grabbing, designing, making calls, drawing on scrap paper, finding what the hell this $1 item at a garage sale could fit into a yard haunt and how I can score all the cheap scrap wood possible. 

I have already taken the week of Halloween off work to have the time to put the proper effort forth and have the day after sales on my to do list. I plan on spending about $500 this year with most of it from discounted items over regular retail. 

But then again, I am building a 20'x38' metal frame structure like a carport so that is going to eat up most of the money.


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## CreepyCanmore (Mar 27, 2007)

I took Dark Lords advice on the paint tint. I pick up odd colors from friends and for free at the toxic waste disposal day in our town where they collect old paint. They let me take whatever I wanted. So I checked at a Canadian Tire (eh) and they had cans of blank paint tint but they were for the paint section and not for sale. I explained why I needed it and they sold it to me for about their cost (14.00 for over a litre). So thanks Dark Lord for the tip.


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