Breathable masonry paint - small tins?

ChasingtheWelshdream

Hello,

Following on from a previous thread, we used Johnstone’s pliolite paint for our rough cast render as the render was cement based.

We now need to paint some bricks (already painted otherwise we’d leave), but want to use breathable paint for this. Solid brick, old house.

I’ve seen mixed reviews about the breathability of Sandtex and Dulux - the Microshield technology is supposed to be porous but other paint manufacturers claim it’s not (well they would I suppose - who to believe?) I’ve been looking at Earthborn and the like which have good reviews but ouch!!!! Expensive! 

Firstly we need black. Second, 

I’m struggling to find tubs smaller than 5lts but we probably wouldn’t even use half that so we really don’t want to spend £70-80 for a huge tub!

Has any MSE-ers discovered a good brand/supplier that does smaller tins? I don’t mind paying a bit extra, but the above prices are crazy compared to ‘standard’ paint.

FreeBear

ChasingtheWelshdream said: Firstly we need black. Second, 

I’m struggling to find tubs smaller than 5lts

I was going to suggest lime wash - Cheap as chips if you mix your own.... Then you said "black". Whilst you can mix a pigment in to lime wash, there is a limit to how much you can use, so the best you could expect is a dark grey.

Another option is SecilTek from someone like Mike Wye - According to their blurb, available in black.

ChasingtheWelshdream

Ooh thank you - Mike Wye didn’t come up at all in any of my searches, but they do 2.5lts. It’s not cheap but much more reasonable than the options I’d found.


I will look into limewash but as some of the bricks are already in black I assume we need to cover likewise.  I shall investigate though.  :-)

FreeBear

ChasingtheWelshdream said: I will look into limewash but as some of the bricks are already in black I assume we need to cover likewise.

A wire brush will scrub some of the black off - You'll want to clean off any loose crud anyways. It will take a few coats of any paint/colour to cover black, so you don't have to stick with what is already there.