Water-repellent and vapor-permeable paint

Claim 1

A water-repellent and vapor-permeable paint, suitable for outdoor surfaces, concrete surfaces and surfaces in "wet" rooms indoors, said paint comprising one or more fillers selected from the group consisting of pigments and particulate extenders, a continuous phase consisting of at least one volatile organic solvent, at least one organic binder selected from the group consisting of acrylic and methacrylic resins, said binder also comprising at least one non-crosslinked oligomeric alkyl-substituted organosiloxane, wherein (a) the paint has a pigment-volume concentration (PVC) within the range of 47 to 65%; (b) the paint, as part of said filler, contains diatom shells in an amount of 3 to 10% of the paint including volatile solvents; (c) one or more non-crosslinked oligomeric alkyl-alkoxy organosiloxanes are present as part of said continuous phase and having the general formula ##STR3## wherein the group R, which may be identical or different, each denotes a C 1-8 alkyl group and n is a number from 3 to 8, said oligomeric organosiloxane being present in an amount of 10 to 30% of the weight of binder excluding the oligomeric organosiloxane, said diatom shells having inner surfaces which have been rendered hydrophobic by said one or more non-crosslinked oligomeric alkyl-alkoxy organosiloxane.