painting a basement ...??

jde2399

i read alot of stuff today about painting walls in a basement.

here is my setup...

i have 4 cinder block walls .. i have NO water/damp issues at all. i want to paint one wall bule and one green.

i have left over green semi-gloss paint from my kids bedroom wall. can i simply use the bear semi-gloss paint on one wall?

and then for the other wall, i have left over FLAT BEAR paint from another bedroom in my house, can i simply use that?

i will clean the walls before painting. but i need to know if the semi-gloss will seal the wall so it cant breathe.

i guess my bare bones question is. can i do many coats with the paint i already have and will it not hurt my walls? im trying not to buy anything further..

thx, jay

Matthewt1970

Plain semi-gloss paint will work on the walls but it won't really seal them. You really need Aqua-lock or Thuro-Seal for the first coat. The you can use you existing paint over that.

jde2399

why do i need to seal them?

do i seal them if i have water/damp issues?

if i dont seal them now and just paint them... if i get water/damp issues next year, can i simply then apply seal over the paint next year?

thx, jay

Matthewt1970

As long as you don't have a moisture problem you will be fine. I painted my basement 13 years ago and it still looks great. I just used straight latex interior paint. It used a LOT of paint.

Sealing it after you have painted may be a problem though if your basement suddenly developed a moisture problem. It can pop the paint off no matter what you put over it.

housepaintingny

Before painting any masonry surface you should check for moisture, take a piece of plastic about a foot square and tape it onto the center of each wall with duct tape, sealing up all four sides of it well, leave it there for about 24 hours then remove it. If the inside of the plastic is dry you have no moisture issue, if there is moisture, water, condensation on the plastic then you have a moisture issue which you should fix first. When painting concrete block that has never been painted you want to use a block filler, that will fill the pin holes and make the block not so porous, I would use Sherwin Williams block filler followed by two coats of a quality 100% acrylic latex in your choice of sheens.

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chrisn

Once they are painted, you will not be able to seal them properly without removing the paint.If it were me. I would seal them properly first before painting.

AllanJ

Concrete is inherently porous. If you wanted to seal it against moisure you must cover it with a material explicity meant for that purpose. Often a waterproofing material has already been applied to the outside of the foundation and in that case you don't need to seal it on the inside.

Concrete may need a prime coat before the finish coat of paint, particularly if it was newly poured.

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