Silicate mineral paints or mineral colors are paint coats with mineral binding agents. Two relevant mineral binders play a role in the field of colors: Lime and silicate.
Under influence of carbon dioxide, lime-based binders carbonate and water silicate-based binders solidify. Together they form calcium silicate hydrates.[1]
Lime paints (aside of Fresco-technique) are only moderately weather resistant, so people apply them primarily in monument preservation. Mineral colors are commonly understood to be silicate paints. These paints use potassium water glass as binder. They are also called water glass paints or Keimfarben (after the inventor).
Mineral silicate paint coats are considered durable and weather resistant. Lifetimes exceeding a hundred years are possible. The city hall in Schwyz and "Gasthaus Weißer Adler" in Stein am Rhein (both in Switzerland) received their coats of mineral paint in 1891, and facades in Oslo from 1895 or in Traunstein, Germany from 1891.