Hello everyone,
We have a waterproof concrete basement that we are painting ourselves. The basement concrete walls are untreated and will not be skim-coated.
Accordingly, the joints at the basement ceiling are also not skim-coated. The concrete naturally has many small air bubbles, which raises the question for me:
Do I need to fully skim-coat the concrete walls throughout the entire basement before painting, or can I possibly paint directly onto the surface with the right paint without significantly affecting the appearance?
I was thinking of only skim-coating the joints and corners, as the appearance would likely suffer noticeably if I didn’t do this.
Skim-coating four rooms entirely... I would like to avoid that effort if possible.
Does anyone have experience with this? Has anyone been in a similar situation and chosen one option or the other and can share the results?
We have a waterproof concrete basement that we are painting ourselves. The basement concrete walls are untreated and will not be skim-coated.
Accordingly, the joints at the basement ceiling are also not skim-coated. The concrete naturally has many small air bubbles, which raises the question for me:
Do I need to fully skim-coat the concrete walls throughout the entire basement before painting, or can I possibly paint directly onto the surface with the right paint without significantly affecting the appearance?
I was thinking of only skim-coating the joints and corners, as the appearance would likely suffer noticeably if I didn’t do this.
Skim-coating four rooms entirely... I would like to avoid that effort if possible.
Does anyone have experience with this? Has anyone been in a similar situation and chosen one option or the other and can share the results?
H
Hausbautraum208 Nov 2021 18:39We have a combination.
In the hobby room, everything is filled and painted; in the laundry room, nothing is filled, only painted; and in the workshop/storage room, nothing at all.
So it already looks quite unattractive in the laundry room. We have a lot of holes. In hindsight, we would have preferred to fill them, but now all the pipes are in front of them, so it's no longer possible. We are also considering installing a sauna and shower there at some point. Then the unsightly condition will be even more annoying than just during laundry.
So, I think it really depends on the intended use. In the workshop, it doesn’t bother us.
In the hobby room, everything is filled and painted; in the laundry room, nothing is filled, only painted; and in the workshop/storage room, nothing at all.
So it already looks quite unattractive in the laundry room. We have a lot of holes. In hindsight, we would have preferred to fill them, but now all the pipes are in front of them, so it's no longer possible. We are also considering installing a sauna and shower there at some point. Then the unsightly condition will be even more annoying than just during laundry.
So, I think it really depends on the intended use. In the workshop, it doesn’t bother us.
exto1791 schrieb:
Utility basement... Yes!Don't make things more complicated than they have to be! Prime first, then paint. If it bothers you over the years, you can always follow the basement trend and "cover it differently" 😉
Hausbautraum20 schrieb:
We have a lot of holes. In hindsight, we would have preferred to fill them with plaster,tomtom79 schrieb:
for the bubbles, as you call them, just brush over them.I would definitely paint it. The holes don’t bother me at all in my storage room, boiler room, and utility room. On the other hand, my wife really doesn’t like it. For the rooms that are planned to be converted into living space later, we also had the walls plastered. In those areas, the holes would definitely be too much for me as well.
Before:
After:
I would have been very annoyed if I hadn’t painted. I don’t mind the color or the bubbles. The main thing is that it’s no longer a dark cave.
KingJulien8 Nov 2021 21:54Painting is really a must; it transforms a dark cave into a cozy space.
Textured paint, applied quite thickly, works well to close small bubbles. It does cost more than just regular paint.
I also filled and sanded the joints, which makes everything look much better. However, it is quite a bit of work.
I did this after the basement was already finished, but before the house was built. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have had the time or motivation.
Textured paint, applied quite thickly, works well to close small bubbles. It does cost more than just regular paint.
I also filled and sanded the joints, which makes everything look much better. However, it is quite a bit of work.
I did this after the basement was already finished, but before the house was built. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have had the time or motivation.
KingJulien schrieb:
Painting is definitely a must; it turns a dark cellar into a space with a comfortable atmosphere.
Applying textured paint quite thickly works well to seal bubbles. It costs more than just paint, though.
I also filled and sanded the joints, which makes everything look much nicer. But it is quite a lot of work.
I did this when the basement was already built, but the house wasn’t yet. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have had the time and patience. I agree! I would probably have chosen a textured paint as well, since it likely covers better and is a bit “thicker.”
We will simply paint the utility room with textured paint and call it done. Possibly we will sand and prime the concrete wall beforehand; I think this should give a pretty good result.
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