Garage door paint isn’t like other, interior paint. It’s got to be sturdy and able to survive the inevitable weathering that your garage door goes through. This is because it is used for an exterior purpose and it is therefore no good using some normal paint.
Luckily for you, I’ve searched and found some of the best garage door paints out there for each type of garage door and for affordable prices. So, get your paintbrush ready and take a look, but first, should you even bother painting your garage door?
Why Should you Paint your Garage Door?
Well, the truth is, you don’t need to, but at the same time, you don’t need to shower, but it sure helps to keep you looking presentable, there’s no reason for your attitude to be different for your garage door!
Like I mentioned in my previous article, there are many benefits to painting your garage door that will make it worth your time. The obvious benefit being the aesthetic benefit of a garage door makeover, making it nicer for you, your neighbours, and hopefully the selling price of your house.
The other main reason being that it helps to prolong the decaying process of your garage door. Unfortunately, every type of garage door can and will decay. If it is metal, it will rust, and if it is wooden, it will rot.
Therefore, garage door paint is a must in my opinion as it is much easier to paint your garage door than to get a new one, much cheaper too! With that being said, let’s take a look at some high-quality, affordable garage door paints.
Top Garage Door Paints
1. Rust-Oleum Universal Paint Satin Anthracite. The first paint on this list comes in 750mls and comes in an amazing variety of colours, fitting any garage door style. This satin paint is sure to give your garage door a clean, colourful appearance, and the watercolour paint type is ideal for facing any weathering such as rain or high humidity. I personally love the satin calm colour, but you really can’t go wrong, the reviews definitely back me up on this one, a solid choice for the first paint on this list.
2. Rust-Oleum Painter’s Touch Latex Paint. This Hunter green, acrylic paint will give your garage door a smooth semi-gloss finish. Recommended for indoor and outdoor use for any material, this is a very versatile choice. It’s water-base acrylic formula will help to make your garage door last years as it will help to resist against chip. Only taking 30 minutes to dry, just make sure you sand your garage door, wash it, dry it, and you’re good to go.
3. JENOLITE Garage & Exterior Door Paint. This paint is from Jenolite, this time, it is an oil-based paint with an even more specific focus on high quality and durability. The protective enamel offers a weather and corrosion resistance to metal, wood, concrete and more, also offering amazing rust prevention on metal doors. The semi-gloss finish will provide a shine to your garage door that will give it that ‘brand new’ look. Abrasion, fading, and chipping will no longer be a part of your garage door’s vocabulary with this paint on it.
4. Johnstone’s Exterior Hardwearing Gloss. There isn’t much that will stop me talking about how good this liquid-based paint is. Giving a professional looking, clean, semi-gloss finish, this paint is easy to use as it requires no sanding whatsoever and is guaranteed for 5 whole years. This paint will protect your garage door from dirt and moisture on its film coating, and you can clean it easily with soap and water. The paint even contains a chemical to prevent the growth of mould and mildew to grow on your garage door, very handy.
5. True Value PDL2-HP PD 1/2-Pint Black Gloss Enamel. The next paint on this list is a bang for your buck, acrylic paint that uses enamel and watercolour to give your garage door a mix of protection and style. This paint is suitable for interior and exterior objects, with a durable finish and quick drying, it’s hard to fault this one. You’ll also only need one coat of this paint for adequate coverage, while it is easy to wash with just soap and water.
6. Rust-Oleum, Bright Red 207004 Marine Coatings Topside Paint.
This water-based garage door paint is ideal for wooden garage doors. This paint will give your garage door a lovely, authentic, finished look. 2-3 coats will be enough to give you that wooden looking finish over any hard surface, it is even ideal for interior objects such as furniture (e.g. a cabinet). Finally, it is easy to clean up while being very low in odour, a great choice, especially for wooden garage doors.
Bonus
Purdy XL Series Swan Enamel/Wall Paint Brush, 4 inches. Now, you’re excited about your new garage paint, you prepare your garage door, open the tin of paint, but oh wait, you need a paintbrush! This is where the Purdy synthetic bristled paint brush comes in. This versatile brush will work on any surface, is designed to work with all paints and stains, and has a natural hardwood style with a square edge. This may be the only paint brush you’ll need to buy as it is sturdy, but will give you such a great looking garage door that you’ll never want to use another paint brush again, the reviews don’t lie.
Tips on Painting your Garage Door
Now you’ve got the paint, you’ll need to consider a few things before you get started, if you haven’t read my article on how to paint your garage door, I’d suggest giving it a read. But for your convenience, I’ll give you a condensed version here if you need some reminding.
Priming your Garage Door: Metal vs Wood
You will need to prime your garage door differently depending on what material your garage door is. Wooden garage doors will need the previous paint taken off it (especially if it’s lead), be cleaned and refined (to get rid of cracks), and finally, rinsed.
You can wash and rinse it with a sugar soap solution with some warm water to get rid of any grease and/or grime, make sure you let your garage door dry before painting it.
Metal garage doors may already be primed, usually if they’re newer. Just make sure that your metal garage door is not galvanised as the paint will not adhere properly to your garage door if so (it will start peeling off in flakes).
Then, just wash your garage door, like you would if it was wooden, then sand the door if there was paint on it before, before priming it with a zinc phosphate solution.
Make sure the environment is correct
When you paint outside, the best temperature for painting is between 8-25 degrees Celsius, or 46 to 77 Fahrenheit for you living in the U.S. Make sure it’s not due to rain anytime soon too.
Just keep this in mind as you’ll want your garage door to be able to dry properly. Each coat of paint takes anywhere from 12-24 hours to dry, make sure you leave your garage door still and down during this time as you may get stains on your door otherwise.
Final Thoughts
It doesn’t matter what material your garage door is made out of, this list will have you more than covered. If you somehow missed out on my article on how to paint your garage door, just make sure to click here to read it.
Just make sure nothing tampers with your garage door while the paint is drying, remember to prime your garage door properly before you get painting too.
With that being said, I hope you found this post helpful, please share it if you did, and happy garage door painting.
