Best Basement Paint?
I have a basement to paint in a home built in 1910. The walls are poured concrete in some areas and brick in others. There is some water seepage in some areas as evidenced by mineral deposits and water stains on the wall, but I am fairly sure the walls do not leak so much as to have any running water.
I am planning on power washing the walls and then painting them. What is the best paint to use in this situation?
Wash the walls (and floor) with Muriatic acid, diluted 50/50 in water. This is hazardous! Wear eye protection, or a face shield. The acid cleaning is necessary to remove lime from the surface of the concrete. My old house had little white puffs of lime that formed as moisture passed through the walls and evaporated. I rinsed the walls with a garden hose, and I used a shop vac to suck up the rinse water. This was a lot of work, but a very necessary step. Without this acid wash, nothing will stick to the concrete.
I use Pool paints for waterproofing basements
Dri-lok, get it at Home Depot, or any building supply place in 5 gallon cans. Just make sure the walls are dry before you attempt to put it on, and there's a special really coarse 6" wide brush that works really well with it.
When I am done with the rest of the house, I mix all remaining paint together and use it up. Color is usually a mysterious lite color, but it works. I use floor utility paint on floors. I have also used KILZ (oil based) on walls before.
I agree with Jam200. I've had good success with Drylok. I recommend that brush too..
Do you have to get the walls down to bare concrete before applying Dri-lock?
If there's loose paint, the power washing should knock it loose, and that should be good enough. Keep in mind, however, that this is a paint, albeit a very THICK one, and when you get done, that's what's going to be visible, so the power washing should be your paint prep, unless you intend to scrape. Just like any paint job, proper prep is the key to making the final product LOOK good, it may be sealed, but to look good, you gotta prep.
I have had mixed results with Drylock and other waterproofing products. One problem is that there are usually a lot of gaps, mortar cracks, holes, etc. in old basement walls. It is very difficult to seal up all of these, and you will get some seepage that is only detectable by the streaks that eventually form on the walls. If you really want it to look good long term, without digging up the outside walls and waterproofing, you may want to consider building interior walls.