Breathable masonry paint?

[zzzkr]

I have a retaining wall that I'm looking to paint and need a breathable, hydrophobic paint.

Has anyone tried Emperor Paint? I've seen it "recommended" on a few YouTube channels, but they sound and feel like paid advertising. They claim the paint is breathable, but there isn't much proof to support this.

I've actually bought a tester pot from them and Sandtex to compare.

I painted a bare concrete block on one side and poured water from the other side to test the breathability aspect of the paint.

My test failed because I painted the blocks bare, without any render, and this left little holes in the block through which water passed.

The next step is to try and render the blocks with sand and cement, and paint again.

Before I do that, can someone recommend a good breathable masonry paint, please?

Thanks.

 

[88v8]

Before I do that, can someone recommend a good breathable masonry paint, please?

Teknos Siloksan Facade.
Highly breathable.
Can be tinted to RAL colours.

I bought mine from Holman Paints.

 

[lostinthelight]

When paint is described as breathable its meant to allow water vapour through not liquid water

 

[88v8]

I have a retaining wall that I'm looking to paint and need a breathable, hydrophobic paint.

Afterthought... if this is an external wall, it should have weep holes to disperse the water pressure.
This enables the wall to do its job while being less thick and expensive to build.

Some useful info here on building retaining walls.

 

[zzzkr]

it should have weep holes

It doesn't have weep holes, instead it has a corrugated pipe at the bottom with gravel back fill.

Someone made the point that sand cement render itself along with waterproofers already reduced the breathability aspect of the wall. A highly breathable paint would probably not help very much.

I might actually go with the paint you suggested.

Emperor paint claims is as breathable as whitewash, for some reason I find that hard to believe.

When paint is described as breathable its meant to allow water vapour through not liquid water

ah, I was testing it the wrong way then.