About a year ago I recommended a client hire a painting crew who was just finishing a big job I had been of fore several weeks, they were all right, kicked the stuff out. Mostly spray. Mega masking.

Did a good job. Flash forward - I did a job in the unit recently, lot of up close action on a couple of walls. I sort of soiled them up a bit. We found a five gallon can of Benjamin Moore matte in the utility closet. The wall looked like it might be matte, couldn't tell. I put some on the dirty spots, the color was a spot on match. But oops, when it dried I could see that damn different sheen peeking out. Drives me wild.

There were several rollers in the barrel, it was late, I wanted to try it, the paint seemed a little thin. After I saw the gloss poke out I wondered if not stirring properly might affect the gloss factor. For all I know that stuff is less solid that the other paint resin. The stuff is a mystery to me. I'll do a U of Google study on it.

I called the painter, he told me they used matte. And, Benjaime Moore told me that shade is not availble in flat. So I went back, took the rollers out, squeegied the paint off with gloves on, stirred the hell out of it, it was noticable thicker, tried a few spots - turned out slightly better but still not right.

I can't imagine sprayer or roller would make it look less sheeny than a brush but who knows. I'm wondering if I should get a new quart of the matte and use one of those small rollers to apply it.

Color varies now and then from batch to batch, but it's worth a try. Oh man, I was really hoping this stuff would just disappear into the field. It's happened often enough, one house I remodeled and then lived in for 5 years, we had half a five gallon can of the flat wall paint left, any smudge or owie, I'd brush that on and it looked like it never happened. But this damned wrong sheen things pops out a lot, espeically when getting a copy made by the optical machine thingy. I really don't want to have to paint that whole wall, not huge, maybe 20' by 9' but I don't like painting.

__________________
Te futueo et caballum tuum

1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

The paint isn't mixed well. Use a drill-mounted mixer and really go to town on it. If you didn't spend 10 minutes on "high speed" you didn't mix long enough. 5 gallon buckets have a tendency to settle. The solids will wind up on the bottom, if you don't use enough agitation to lift them back into suspension and make the paint homogeneous from top to bottom in the bucket, it will never match. "Flat", "Satin", and "Eggshell" finishes are the most picky about how well the paint is mixed. The general rule of thumb is that is more than 24 hours have elapsed since the previous thorough mixing, you need to do it again.

__________________
Current stable:
1995 E320 157K (Nancy)
1983 500SL 125K (SLoL)

Gone but not forgotten:
1986 300SDL (RIP)
1991 350SD
1991 560SEL
1990 560SEL
1986 500SEL Euro (Rusted to nothing at 47K!)

Gone and wanting to forget:
1985 524TD 167K (TotalDumpster™) [Definitely NOT a Benz]

Oh, and application device matters. A brush will have more sheen than a roller. You can get around that fact to some extent by making sure the brush you're using is very high quality (no disposable or natural bristle brushes please...) and well raked against the side of the paint can before applying. Use short strokes in all directions and fan out into the existing paint as the brush dries to blend your patch. You want to use the least amount of paint possible, a thick layer will always shine, even with flat paint.

__________________
Current stable:
1995 E320 157K (Nancy)
1983 500SL 125K (SLoL)

Gone but not forgotten:
1986 300SDL (RIP)
1991 350SD
1991 560SEL
1990 560SEL
1986 500SEL Euro (Rusted to nothing at 47K!)

Gone and wanting to forget:
1985 524TD 167K (TotalDumpster™) [Definitely NOT a Benz]

+1 on this and the proper mixing of the paint! I think using a small roller is what you'll need to do. If the paint was originally sprayed you'll have a tougher job matching the finish. Best thing to do is to "feather" out the repainted area.

__________________
“Whatever story you're telling, it will be more interesting if, at the end you add, "and then everything burst into flames.”
― Brian P. Cleary, You Oughta Know By Now

Paints are originally ground to get the pigments into suspension. Mixing fails by comparison. So if the pigments were shocked out of suspension it is not easy to get them back in.

There are clear spray products that provide various finishes. Might want to try a can of that.

Good advice. I have a couple of long mixer attachments, one used primarily for mixing thinset, and a smaller one. Might use both, big one first. I'll try the small rollers as well.

Back when I was a hotshot on the mega million dollar mansions, me and the guys would sorta look down our nose at painters. Didn't make as much as we did, were always "borrowing" our extension cords, getting in our way - but after going indie, oops, you find out that painting is not as easy as it looks. Lot of shyte can go wrong, and can be a major PITA to fix. Urban Ore, a Berkeley based recycled materials store - sort of a Goodwill for all sorts of house construction items, great store - has a lot of used doors. Many have paint peeling off in pieces nearly as big as your hand because clueless DIYers painted over gloss paint with no sanding, maybe even no cleaning. But I once miraculously found one that looked like it was from the same factory that made three doors at the top of a stairway in a not new house - easily 50 to 100 years old. Was the right size, had been stained, excellent shape. The bozo tenants had kicked a hole in one of the three.

__________________
Te futueo et caballum tuum

1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

Who knows, you might be right. This paint is less than a year old. I was hoping it would work well but you could be correct. Are you saying a clear spray could reduce the gloss factor? Would be miracle I would imgaine if it was indiscernible from the field. Might end up getting a new can and do the whole wall. Fortunately the label is still legible on the can: CSP-305 (crisp linen). I gather that Ace carries their stuff now. Not sure if I should take a chance getting it made there. You would think they would have the top of the line mixers. Seems like a marriage made in heaven for Ace, what with Home Depot's Behr brand being well respected.

__________________
Te futueo et caballum tuum

1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

Take the time to mix the paint. If the paint stock is quality stuff (Benjamin Moore usually is), you should be able to match the paint very closely for 3-5 years after first application. Once the paint starts to fade, it will never match again, but 1 year should still match well enough if the paint is thoroughly mixed first.

FWIW, I painted this house in 2014 with Sherwin Williams Pro-Mar 200 paint (NOT CHEAP), and my touchups still match perfectly. The key is mixing the paint and feathering out your touchup. If you mixed it well enough and feathered your patch, you should have a hard time telling where you touched up after 48-72 hours.

__________________
Current stable:
1995 E320 157K (Nancy)
1983 500SL 125K (SLoL)

Gone but not forgotten:
1986 300SDL (RIP)
1991 350SD
1991 560SEL
1990 560SEL
1986 500SEL Euro (Rusted to nothing at 47K!)

Gone and wanting to forget:
1985 524TD 167K (TotalDumpster™) [Definitely NOT a Benz]

Would be great to have this approx 2 gallons of paint as perfect touch up. I'll sand the areas I already did with 220 - 400 and use a roller.

__________________
Te futueo et caballum tuum

1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

Hang pictures? Seriously though I learnt a lot on this thread.


Take the paint to a store and get it really beat up. If that does not work paint the whole wall. Same color will cover in one light coat. Sheen to me is somewhat different than texture. Although texture can modify appearance of course. It does sound like you are beyond that.


Also the painted surface even though only a year old might have oxidized already.

perhaps I hallucinated https://duckduckgo.com/?q=spray+matte+clear&t=ffab&ia=web https://duckduckgo.com/?q=spray+satin+clear&t=ffab&ia=web or try your own terms If you want to get pigments into suspension, think "ball mill"

I think what you hallucinated is that something could be sprayed on the original matte and the new semi matte and magically it would all be the same gloss factor, that the funky parts would vanish. Begging your pardon, not going to happen.

__________________
Te futueo et caballum tuum

1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

I may end up painting the whole wall. Pictures wouldn't work, I know you were kidding. Here's the oddball job:





One of those semi privacy barriers. The door from the condo hall opens to the bedroom area, the only space in it that works as a bedroom. From all but close to a straight on angle you can't see the other side. I took the client to a the world's niftiest hardwood store, McBeath's in Berkeley and she really wanted the maple. Miraculously they had a bunch in 6/4, not all that common. The pieces are 1-5/16ths x 2-3/8. Extra width would have cost more. it was about $1200 in lumber as it was. And holy crap, you can't just use a planer on that stuff. A lot of it had subtle or even loud curl and a planer will pull pieces out. And some of it had attractive knots that the planer would have ruined. So I had to finally invest in a factory built drum sander - got a Super Max 16-32 - my homebuilt job not workable for long pieces. I put it between my table saw and its 4 x 8 outfeed table/work table, stuck blocks under it and had in and outfeed tables. The feed belt thing is great stuff. Some tricks to the tool, I discovered.

Long story short, too late for that, it was at each end where I placed my filthy, dirty hands and smudged it up. Prolly the only way to really avoid that would be nitrile gloves, changed often.

__________________
Te futueo et caballum tuum

1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K