OK, so I've spent ages looking at breathable paints and working out what to use to reduce risks of damp, etc but now I have the opposite problem. I'm painting the upstairs ceilings and want to do as much as I can to stop water getting into the loft. Have got a suspended ceiling beneath a dodgy lath and plaster one. Stupidly should have used foil back plasterboard or similar, but that only occurred to me retrospectively (!) and now trying to find a non breathable paint to go over the top to try to reduce risk of moisture getting into the loft. 

 

I've done a bit of research and emailing different companies, this is what I've had back from a few replies which I thought I'd share

 

* TOR Coatings (Rust-oleum etc) - "Very sorry but on this occasion we have nothing suitable in our ranges of paints all of our paints are breathable to some extent"

* Tikkurila - "All of our wall emulsion paints are water based, and tend to have an element of breathability to them, however, I’d recommend taking a look at our Luja range."

* PPG Architectural Coatings (Johnstone's etc) - "I would suggest the Acrylic Durable Matt or Acrylic Durable Eggshell paints , which are impervious paint systems."

 

 

Looks like I'll be using one of the Johnstone's paints recommended. 

 

I thought it was interesting, given the concerns about the breathability about paints, how tricky it was trying to find one that was 'non' breathable. 

Has anybody else got any experience, recommendations or thoughts? (don't really want to use high gloss!)

 

Acrylic eggshell will do it and it’s a semi Matt finish.