breathable paint for stone walls?

[sparkiedave]

What is the best paint to use on plaster in a stone cottage, been told it needs to be able to breathe to help prevent damp getting locked into the wall

[Wandle2]

Hi
there are several breathable emulsions. I think they are the water-based ones, not the ones with vinyl. I used one on my cottage in Sussex, as it's damp and I was told the walls needed to breathe.
I'm not in the cottage at the moment, so can't tell you the name, but I got it from my local Brewers decorating shop. It's what they use on new plaster.
Otherwise, Farrow and Ball do all their various colours in breathable emulsion. You can email their website and they will tell you (I did ask, and got an answer, then decided I'd just paint the walls white, so bought the Brewers, much cheaper, paint).
Julia

[sparkiedave]

Cheers for that
I was told similar by a spotty faced young kid in a decorators merchants, wasn't quite sure whether I should trust his advice but looks like he may have been right

[Zampa]

Ordinary contract emulsion like covermatt, Jonmatt, or Supermatt will do the job...and half the price of 'paint for new plaster' which is the same thing

[Wandle2]

Zampa

"Paint for new plaster" was just the man in Brewers' description of the paint. What he gave me could not be described as expensive paint. Wandle

[Zampa]

Ah right im with you now..i thought you was refering to Dulux's own one..which, the last time I looked was 30 quid a pop

You wont got wrong with ordinary non vinyl emulsion Sparkie..it will do the same job as the 'poncy paint' (farrow and ball) lol

[sparkiedave]

cheers for that, looked at a wiring job the other day, someone said, "we're on a very tight budget" I noticed the tins of Farrow & Ball or whatever it's called and asked "if you're on a tight budget, how come you're usin that stuff" continued with the job and charged them my normal price, noticed that the poncy paint smelled very similar to Leyland

[Zampa]

Like a lot of customers mate, happy to spend money on themselves but not on a good tradesperson..

I have a regular customer who has a brand new car every 3 years and wouldnt pay anything less than 60 odd quid for a pair of shoes, all her clothes come from the best shops, hair done every three weeks.. yet whenever she asks for a price for anything its always 'dont forget, cheap job, im own my own and have always come to you over the years'

I wonder if she says the same thing in her local co-op

**** em

[brinerustle]

sparkiedave wrote:

What is the best paint to use on plaster in a stone cottage, been told it needs to be able to breathe to help prevent damp getting locked into the wall

No synthetic paint will give you the breathability - the correctly term for walls is vapor permeability - of a mineral paint.

Synthetic paints (both oil paints AND latex emulsions) are made from oil distillates and will eventually bubble and peel because they are a moisture barrier. Even the so-called breathable ones have a fraction of the breathability of mineral paints.

Mineral paints are the best solution, they are non-toxic and ecological and the best choice for preservation of architectural heritage. They are antistatic so they do not attract as much dust, are alkaline so they never grow mold and rarely moss, are just as vapor permeable as stone, good for interiors or exteriors, withstands any temperature, does not release toxins over time, and do not release toxins even in a fire.

The cheapest alternative is lime paint. This has been in use for millenia and many old buildings have suffered since it has fallen out of use. However, lime is not as durable to rubbing or scratching (stairwells, hallways, etc), weathering, acid rain, etc. This is because calcium is a very soft mineral. However, a simple lime whitewash is far cheaper than any other alternative. It cannot be applied on horizontal surfaces where water pools.

The best alternative for stone - it lasts much longer than any other type of paint, just as vapor permeable as stone, good for interiors or exteriors, is washable - is silicate mineral paint Some are emulsions which contain small amounts of petroleum distillates and may offer a wider range of colors, others are pure minerals. These petrify into the stone and will last for decades, perhaps centuries, without a recoat.

If the cabin has already been painted with an oil or latex paint, the surfaces will first need to be stripped down to the stone before applying a mineral paint.