"Harold & Susan Vordos" wrote in message
...

"Mike Henry" wrote in message
...
I'm thinking about painting the poured concrete walls in the basement
shop
to get it looking a little brighter. What is a good color, brand, and
type
of paint to use? Is a glossy or matte finish better? Is selaer needed
or
can the walls just be painted as is? The walls are 12 years old and we
never have any water leaks - the sump pump has never come on.

Home Depot, Menard's, Lowes are all nearby as is a J.C. Licht paint
store.

An archive search didn't reveal too much from rcm, but Boris Beizer seems
to
like a really bright yellow in acrylic. Some seem to think that pure
white
is not a good color
snip

Hi Mike,

My shop is fully painted, *everything* except for the 6" thick concrete
floor, which we had dyed a light gray when it was poured. They simply add
lamp black to the mix in small quantities. Cheap, and looks great. To
paint my seasoned walls, I used a layer of an appropriate primer, then
two coats of Behr acrylic latex purchased from Home Depot. It's sort of
an
eggshell luster, easy to clean and doesn't show all the defects in the
walls, of which there's more than enough. My walls are sand plastered
with
a rough texture. The multiple coats smoothed the sand considerably. I
suggest you fill any divots with a filler material before painting, so it
is
easy to clean when necessary. It need not be pretty, just make sure you
don't have multiple air holes in the concrete that hold dirt and make
scrubbing impossible. I used a putty knife and didn't worry about
sanding,
just struck off the surface flush. Worked great. I did go back a time or
two to make sure deep holes were flush after drying. In keeping with
industry wisdom, I chose a very pretty light lime green color, which
reflects light well and is a pleasure to be around. That color is very
restful and doesn't lead to eye fatigue, at least for me. It probably
goes without saying that it's a good idea to choose a color that is
soothing
to you. Red might be a bit much! g Pure white is great, but shows
every damned bit if dust and grime that comes near.


Thanks Harold I think that Boris liked the Behr acrylic latex as well. Do
you recall which primer you used and if you etched the walls first?? The
Behr web site lists a No. 880 Primer but cautions that the surface must be
etched with their 991 etcher. It looks like the most aggressive component
that their etcher contains is phosphoric acid which probably poses little
risk to machine tools providing that direct contact is avoided. One major
downside to this etcher is that it must be flushed completely with water and
that would be a major problem for me - just about impossible to avoid
getting the tools wet. Other sites recommend a dilute muriatic acid etch,
but I know that will destroy every tool in the shop.

I gather that the paint you used has a low gloss finish - is that right? It
seems like high gloss might reflect light better but the glare could be
annoying and maybe even distracting or dangerous around rotating tools.

I wonder if the primer will stick if the walls aren't etched first? A piece
of duct tape pressed against the wall came away with small flakes of
concrete and that's probably not a good sign. Perhaps scraping and wire
brushing would help, with the machine tools properly protected of
course.Concrete dust probably won't do the ways any good. The walls are
reasonably flat but there are some prutrusions at the form seams and a few
places where the reinforcing wire has come through. I hadn't though about
voidspockets but can see now where that would be a problem so I'll add
filler to the list.

It really sounds like you've done a nice job with your shop. I only wish
we'd had the foresight to do the basement up properly when our townhome was
built. It's a heck of a lot harder to deal with after the tools are in
place.

Mike