Penny Drue Baird Grand Prize Winner	Grady Cooley Runner Up
Justine Cushing Runner Up	Karen Harris Runner Up
Keita L. Turner Runner Up

Over 80 qualifying entries have been made, covering all types of residential space, from living rooms to baths, single homes to townhouses, with exemplary use of paint for decorative purposes. To learn about the winners and the judges, click on the competition logo.

PQI News
Members of The Paint Quality Institute Global Team met in Connecticut and New York in May to share ideas and experiences about educating paint users about the benefits of using quality paints, about training, and other pertinent topics. Representatives attended from China, Malaysia, Germany, South Africa, India, France, the UK, Australia and Brazil, as well as the US. Included was a visit to the Fashion Institute of Technology where color and decorating trends were covered.

Q: Our airless spray unit seems to be doing a worse job than it used to. In doing new interior construction, we had gotten great results, with work going quickly and with great, very uniform results. Now, we see unevenness in the application with the lower part of the fan going on heavier, and with some spitting at the bottom, and sometimes at the top, of the spray. We are definitely having to apply more paint to get uniform results. Are we thinning the paint too much? What else might be going on?

A: You are seeing the classic symptoms of a warn spray tip. Paints, especially interior flat wall paints, contain extender pigments that are somewhat abrasive, so after spraying some quantity of paint, the tip opening will become worn. The tip should be replaced when signs of wear appear. This may be after anywhere from spraying 15 to 50 gallons since the tip was installed, depending on the nature of the paint.

The wearing of the opening results in a widening and rounding of the spray fan which in part is what causes the problem. Normally you should not be thinning paints and stains applied by airless spray.