An investigation of the water protection capacity of modern paints with low organic solvent content was carried out as part of an European research project. The wider scope of the project was to establish the performance and durability of these new coatings applied to window joinery made from European softwood species. The aim of the moisture studies was to employ well-proven methods to determine the liquid water absorption of the coatings. A range of standard moisture permeability tests, carried out on coating systems applied to pine and spruce substrates, indicated a high correlation between similar data obtained using different techniques at different laboratories. The results showed that permeability of the coatings tested did not depend on the timber substrate, as long as the permeability was expressed in absolute terms and not relative to the absorption of uncoated wood. The results from this study will be used to determine whether laboratory measurements of the moisture transmission properties of a coating can be used to predict outdoor weathering performance.
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