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Cosmetic repair of poured basement walls

Stuart | Posted in General Discussion on August 22, 2006 09:51am

This last week I had a new furnace and central a/c installed in my 1913 Colonial.  To make room for the HVAC guys to run their new ductwork, I had to haul 25 years worth of junk out of the basement, and now that it’s (nearly) empty, I’m looking at the basement walls and wondering what could be done to clean them up and make the place look less like a dungeon.

The walls are poured concrete, and were formed up with rough boards so they are somewhat irregular – the surface varies in and out by maybe 1/2 inch or so where the individual planks were nailed up in the forms 93 years ago.  Over time there were water leaks here and there due to poor drainage, which caused some efflorescence and erosion (I fixed the gutters and resloped the ground around the perimeter of the house back when I moved in, so the basement has been dry for years but the walls are still pretty pockmarked in places.)  Some but not all of the walls were painted way before my time.  Some of the paint is still holding on strong, while in other areas it mostly loosened up and peeled away.

I don’t have any intentions of finishing the basement off into living space – all I have is a workshop, the washer and dryer, and storage down there – but it would be nice to get the walls reasonably smooth and clean.  I was initially thinking that they could be parged, but I’m guessing the existing paint would have to be removed somehow first for it to stick.  What about nailing up some mesh and stuccoing the walls?  Another thought I had was putting up some sort of cement board, with a troweled finish over the top of that (they are doing something similar on the outside of my office building right now.)

I’m a fairly competent DIY’er, but major masonry work is beyond my skill and energy level so I plan on calling in a contractor.  At this point I’m mainly trying to figure out what kinds of options I have, so any suggestions are welcome.

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Replies

  1. User avater
    IMERC | Aug 23, 2006 12:59am | #1

    Stucco...

    but I think that look is cool... just paint it...

     

     

    Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming

    WOW!!! What a Ride!

    Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!

  2. User avater
    IMERC | Aug 23, 2006 01:00am | #2

    troweled on masonry sealer in color for the stucco...

     

     

    Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming

    WOW!!! What a Ride!

    Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!

  3. Learner | Aug 23, 2006 01:51am | #3

    A lot of new construction in my neighborhood is poured cement walls with veneer brickwork. The brick veneer is probably 1" thick and is just attached to the concrete walls, looks pretty nice on the exterior of buildings probably look pretty nice inside a basement, turn it into more of a tavern look than a dungeon look.

    1. timkline | Aug 23, 2006 02:09am | #7

      i'm pretty sure that the brick veneer is an imprint on the faces of the form panels.

      correct me if i'm wrong, but i saw this done everywhere down in Alexandria, VA.

      Edit:

      sorry, we're talking two different things. i'm thinking interior and you're talking exterior.  yes, you could use thin brick veneer on the inside of the walls, if prepared properly. kind of pricey though, probably at least $10 sf.

       

      carpenter in transition

      Edited 8/22/2006 7:15 pm ET by timkline

  4. timkline | Aug 23, 2006 01:54am | #4

    scrub with TSP.

    wash with water.

    dry thoroughly.

    paint with white Drylok.

     

    open beer.

    enjoy.

     

    (don't get carried away, the walls are cool, just the way they are.)

     

    carpenter in transition

    1. User avater
      McDesign | Aug 23, 2006 02:02am | #5

      I really enjoy painting rough block or 'crete with the Drylock you mix with water - it's so darned white, and it spreads like whipped cream on toast - yummy!

      Forrest

      1. timkline | Aug 23, 2006 02:07am | #6

        actually, i like the oil base version.

        that way i can skip the beer at the end and get high halfway throught the paint job.

         carpenter in transition

  5. sungod | Aug 23, 2006 02:10am | #8

    Stucco... Color coat stucco to be exact. You use a rubber float to trowel it on.
    Advantage; on bare concrete it will not peel off, because it breathes. It will fill or cover most imperfections on the wall.
    Disadvantage; it won't stick on peeling paint - it won't seal the wall from moisture. - it will look blotchy if one part of the wall is wet and other is dry. The surface is like sandpaper, don't rub your face on it. Come in a lot of colors, just pastel colors. You can save it in a sealed container (dry,of course) and remix new batches for future patching.

    I have seen it stick to painted surface especially cars and trucks. Stucco will fall off when place on a dirty surfaces, and extremely dry surface or a sun baked surface.
    Buy a bag of pre-mixed colored stucco and try it on an inconspicuous wall, you will find it easy.

  6. Learner | Aug 23, 2006 08:29pm | #9

    Another option I thought of was a Durock coating you trowl on. Go here:
    http://www.holmesonhomes.com/episode_show.php?sid=11&eid=21 and click on image 2 and image 14 and finally image 15. It will show the coating in progress. This is an example application in a front walk area but you can put the stuff on your walls as well quite labour intensive to achieve the correct finish but I think it looks great.

    1. Stuart | Aug 24, 2006 12:08am | #10

      Thanks to all for the suggestions, at least now I have some ideas to work with.

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