Advice re painting basement walls and floor

Dear All We currently have a cement floor in our basement which is unfinished/unpainted and our walls have been directly painted on with an unknown paint. We are about to relocate our laundry into the basement, so I wanted to make it feel a little fresher and also reduce the amount of dust (mostly caused by unfinished floor). My plan is to paint the cement using a primer and epoxy based cement floor paint but I’m unsure what the best option is for the walls. I’m new to the whole brownstone thing, so was wondering if I need to apply a special paint to the walls to allow them to ‘breathe’? If so, I’m guessing I will need to remove all the old layers of paint without taking the walls with it somehow? Thanks in advance for your input!

tressilliana

in DIY 10 years and 2 months ago

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Shamrock | 10 years and 2 months ago

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I would suggest that you use concrete stain for the floor. Its inexpensive and easy to apply. I have it on the floor of my store, and it holds up pretty well. The great thing about it is when you want to freshen it up you just roll another coat on top.

greenmountain | 10 years and 2 months ago

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If your floor is breathing, don’t paint it. You will just have to repaint it frequently as new layers peel off with old ones. If it is dusty, and continues to be dusty, after you clean, no kind of paint will adhere to that floor. I would not use epoxy paint on the floor in an enclosed space, without ventilation, or oil paint either. It may be too cold outside now to let in enough fresh air and still be warm enough to paint within the required minimum temperature of the paint. A much bigger, but longer lasting, job may be tile. Yet, many basement tile jobs fail. As a tile contractor, I have talked my way out of a few of these. I want my client to be realistic about what it takes to be effective. Either the substrate is stable, or you need a new concrete floor, but first the existing floor, would probably have to be dug up and hand-carried out. I would tile over an “uncoupling membrane” allowing ventilation of ground or household moisture throughout the entire tiled floor, and expansion/contraction. This is a long-term cost effective solution. You can find me here in Brownstoner “find a pro” or contact me at GreenMountain “dot nyc”