Shop will be in the basement. I want to paint the basement walls
white. Basement is dry. Great drainage of water away from the
foundation. Poured concrete walls. Poured in 1999. Concrete forms
used for the basement had that brick mold pattern in them. Both sides
of the walls. Supposed to look like bricks. 162 linear feet of
basement walls to paint. 8 feet tall. Approximately 1,300 square feet
of wall surface with this brick mold pattern in it. Best way to appy
the paint to the walls? Roller with really thick, long nap? Airless
sprayer? What performance level is needed for an airless sprayer?
Very nice airless sprayers are about $75 per 24 hours locally.

wrote:

Shop will be in the basement. I want to paint the basement walls
white.
snip
Best way to appy
the paint to the walls? Roller with really thick, long nap?

Yep.

Airless
sprayer?

Nope.

For a number of reasons, not the least of which is that a decent spray
gun needs about 15 scfm.

To obtain that capacity, you will need a 5HP, 2 stage compressor with
at least a 60-80 gal tank.

Cost: About $1,000 USD + installation.

Have fun.

Lew

wrote in message
ups.com...
Shop will be in the basement. I want to paint the basement walls
white. Basement is dry. Great drainage of water away from the
foundation. Poured concrete walls. Poured in 1999. Concrete forms
used for the basement had that brick mold pattern in them. Both sides
of the walls. Supposed to look like bricks. 162 linear feet of
basement walls to paint. 8 feet tall. Approximately 1,300 square feet
of wall surface with this brick mold pattern in it. Best way to appy
the paint to the walls? Roller with really thick, long nap? Airless
sprayer?

What you DON'T want is one of those crappy Wagner sprayers. I'd probably
opt for a roller. Actually, I'd insulate first where I live. If you are in
a place that requires heat, the insulation is a good deal.

On 14 Jan 2007 21:34:33 -0800, wrote:

Shop will be in the basement. I want to paint the basement walls
white. Basement is dry. Great drainage of water away from the
foundation. Poured concrete walls. Poured in 1999. Concrete forms
used for the basement had that brick mold pattern in them. Both sides
of the walls. Supposed to look like bricks. 162 linear feet of
basement walls to paint. 8 feet tall. Approximately 1,300 square feet
of wall surface with this brick mold pattern in it. Best way to appy
the paint to the walls? Roller with really thick, long nap? Airless
sprayer? What performance level is needed for an airless sprayer?
Very nice airless sprayers are about $75 per 24 hours locally.

Go ahead and spray. It's faster, gets into everything, and uses less
paint. The rental sprayer comes with a compressor. Clean out the
spraying area first and mask off the entrance/windows, etc. Then buy
the paint. White primer (oil or latex - you choose based on informed
preference and suitable for bare concrete) is likely all you would
need. Last get the sprayer. Take note ---- The last guy that used
it may have used latex and the pump hoses are filled with water. Or
he used oil based and the hoses are filled with solvent. Flush the
sysem with the clean up stuff for the paint you will use before you
actually paint. Ask the rental guy how to do that.

Pete

Lew Hodgett wrote:
wrote:

Shop will be in the basement. I want to paint the basement walls
white.
snip
Best way to appy
the paint to the walls? Roller with really thick, long nap?

Yep.

Airless
sprayer?

Nope.

For a number of reasons, not the least of which is that a decent spray
gun needs about 15 scfm.

To obtain that capacity, you will need a 5HP, 2 stage compressor with
at least a 60-80 gal tank.

As stated, the sprayer is an airless sprayer designed specifically for
spraying paint. No air is involved. No compressor is involved. The
airless sprayer pumps the paint/liquid itself through the spray gun
nozzle. Develops around 3,000 psi. Air does not carry the paint to
the surface as in woodworking finishes. Examples of airless sprayers
can be found at the Home Depot website by searching under the name
"Magnum by Graco". Or at the Lowes website do a search on "SprayTECH
DSP" or "SprayTECH Apex".








Cost: About $1,000 USD + installation.

Have fun.

Lew

wrote in message
ups.com...
Shop will be in the basement. I want to paint the basement walls
white. Basement is dry. Great drainage of water away from the
foundation. Poured concrete walls. Poured in 1999. Concrete forms
used for the basement had that brick mold pattern in them. Both sides
of the walls. Supposed to look like bricks. 162 linear feet of
basement walls to paint. 8 feet tall. Approximately 1,300 square feet
of wall surface with this brick mold pattern in it. Best way to appy
the paint to the walls? Roller with really thick, long nap? Airless
sprayer? What performance level is needed for an airless sprayer?
Very nice airless sprayers are about $75 per 24 hours locally.


Rent a sprayer, it will be well worth the $75. 1,300 sq feet is nothing, it
will probably take you longer to mask off the things you do not want to
paint then it will to actually paint. And it makes painting kinda fun....
not real fun, just kinda fun.

wrote:
Shop will be in the basement. I want to paint the basement walls
white. Basement is dry. Great drainage of water away from the
foundation. Poured concrete walls. Poured in 1999. Concrete forms
used for the basement had that brick mold pattern in them. Both sides
of the walls. Supposed to look like bricks. 162 linear feet of
basement walls to paint. 8 feet tall. Approximately 1,300 square feet
of wall surface with this brick mold pattern in it. Best way to appy
the paint to the walls? Roller with really thick, long nap? Airless
sprayer? What performance level is needed for an airless sprayer?
Very nice airless sprayers are about $75 per 24 hours locally.

Wow, we have the exact same basement. When we bought the house I never
even noticed it, but everybody that comes downstairs makes a big deal
out of it. I've never seen it anywhere else.

Anyway, we painted it light blue and I just used a roller, been 15+
years, still fine. I can't even imagine spraying in a basement, little
specks of paint everywhere.

Some beer, couple of friends, an afternoon easy.

Where are you anyway?

-Jim

wrote:

As stated, the sprayer is an airless sprayer designed specifically for
spraying paint. No air is involved. No compressor is involved. The
airless sprayer pumps the paint/liquid itself through the spray gun
nozzle. Develops around 3,000 psi. Air does not carry the paint to
the surface as in woodworking finishes. Examples of airless sprayers
can be found at the Home Depot website by searching under the name
"Magnum by Graco". Or at the Lowes website do a search on "SprayTECH
DSP" or "SprayTECH Apex".


Sorry, it was late and missed that; however, was involved as an OEM
supplier to a company who was a manufacturer of these units.

Based on that experience, unless you are looking at a commercial unit
designed to handle a lot of paint, like being able to completely paint
a typical room in less than 5 minutes, you are probably not going to
be happy with the performance.

My OEM dropped out of the market after a couple of years because they
refused to build a low end product, so they could compete.

Personally, if Lowes and Home Depot sell it, I'm not usually not
interested.

These days, they seem to only be interested in serving the bottom
feeders which makes almost anything they sell suspect, IMHO.

As far as your project is concerned, by the time you mask everything
off so you can spray, you can be critiquing your work with a cold one,
if you roll it.

Getting the concrete primed and sealed will be the major task.

Have fun.

Lew

On Mon, 15 Jan 2007 06:45:17 GMT, Lew Hodgett
wrote:

Airless
sprayer?

Nope.

For a number of reasons, not the least of which is that a decent spray
gun needs about 15 scfm.

To obtain that capacity, you will need a 5HP, 2 stage compressor with
at least a 60-80 gal tank.

????

An airless paint sprayer should work fine. I have no idea what you're
talking about above, but the ones that sit over a five gallon bucket
work pretty well.

That being said, my vote would be for the roller- no chance of
painting the upstairs by accident that way.

jtpr wrote:
wrote:
Shop will be in the basement. I want to paint the basement walls
white. Basement is dry. Great drainage of water away from the
foundation. Poured concrete walls. Poured in 1999. Concrete forms
used for the basement had that brick mold pattern in them. Both sides
of the walls. Supposed to look like bricks. 162 linear feet of
basement walls to paint. 8 feet tall. Approximately 1,300 square feet
of wall surface with this brick mold pattern in it. Best way to appy
the paint to the walls? Roller with really thick, long nap? Airless
sprayer? What performance level is needed for an airless sprayer?
Very nice airless sprayers are about $75 per 24 hours locally.

Wow, we have the exact same basement. When we bought the house I never
even noticed it, but everybody that comes downstairs makes a big deal
out of it. I've never seen it anywhere else.

Anyway, we painted it light blue and I just used a roller, been 15+
years, still fine. I can't even imagine spraying in a basement, little
specks of paint everywhere.

Some beer, couple of friends, an afternoon easy.

Where are you anyway?

Middle of the Midwest. Brick mold foundation forms are probably used
on 90+% of the new houses around here for the past 15 years. Probably
50% for the new houses built 10 years before that. When I first saw it
on houses years ago I thought it was neat. But after owning a house
with plain flat concrete walls and now the brick mold pattern walls, I
think the brick mold pattern is just a harder to paint, dust catcher on
the inside. It looks great outside compared to a flat foundation wall.
Ideal would be brick mold onthe outside and flat on the inside. That
way its easier to paint the basement walls or glue/screw studs and
styrofoam insulation to the walls for finishing. And the small piece
of foundation above grade outside with the brick mold does look better
than flat concrete and its not too much surface area above grade to
paint once every 5-10 years.

Basement is completely unfinished and mostly empty. Bare concrete
walls and floor. Two small basement windows to tape off. Two outlets
to tape off. Furnace/hot water heater to not spray/paint. 10 minutes
to pile the basement contents into a pile in the middle of the room and
put a plastic tarp over the pile to keep paint off. Another 10 minutes
to take the important stuff out of the basement so there is no way it
can get painted by accident. I plan to paint the floor after the walls
so any minor paint drops won't be a problem.

I think I will try the roller first. $4 for a thick nap roller. I
already have the wire grill to hang over the edge of the 5 gallon
bucket. And a roller. So it won't be too onerous to see how rolling
will work.


-Jim

wrote:

: As stated, the sprayer is an airless sprayer designed specifically for
: spraying paint. No air is involved. No compressor is involved. The
: airless sprayer pumps the paint/liquid itself through the spray gun
: nozzle. Develops around 3,000 psi. Air does not carry the paint to
: the surface as in woodworking finishes. Examples of airless sprayers
: can be found at the Home Depot website by searching under the name
: "Magnum by Graco".


This is what I would use. I've painted (real) brick with a roller, and
one problem is the grooves will take up a lot of paint, which will then
cause runs and drips.


I used a Magnum (the smallest one at HD) to paint to interior of a house.
Very fast, and once you get the motion right the paint flow is easy to control.

Taping can take a while, and you should use a very good respirator,
but this is the way to go.


-- Andy Barss

wrote:
jtpr wrote:
wrote:
Shop will be in the basement. I want to paint the basement walls
white. Basement is dry. Great drainage of water away from the
foundation. Poured concrete walls. Poured in 1999. Concrete forms
used for the basement had that brick mold pattern in them. Both sides
of the walls. Supposed to look like bricks. 162 linear feet of
basement walls to paint. 8 feet tall. Approximately 1,300 square feet
of wall surface with this brick mold pattern in it. Best way to appy
the paint to the walls? Roller with really thick, long nap? Airless
sprayer? What performance level is needed for an airless sprayer?
Very nice airless sprayers are about $75 per 24 hours locally.

Wow, we have the exact same basement. When we bought the house I never
even noticed it, but everybody that comes downstairs makes a big deal
out of it. I've never seen it anywhere else.

Anyway, we painted it light blue and I just used a roller, been 15+
years, still fine. I can't even imagine spraying in a basement, little
specks of paint everywhere.

Some beer, couple of friends, an afternoon easy.

Where are you anyway?

Middle of the Midwest. Brick mold foundation forms are probably used
on 90+% of the new houses around here for the past 15 years. Probably
50% for the new houses built 10 years before that. When I first saw it
on houses years ago I thought it was neat. But after owning a house
with plain flat concrete walls and now the brick mold pattern walls, I
think the brick mold pattern is just a harder to paint, dust catcher on
the inside. It looks great outside compared to a flat foundation wall.
Ideal would be brick mold onthe outside and flat on the inside. That
way its easier to paint the basement walls or glue/screw studs and
styrofoam insulation to the walls for finishing. And the small piece
of foundation above grade outside with the brick mold does look better
than flat concrete and its not too much surface area above grade to
paint once every 5-10 years.

Basement is completely unfinished and mostly empty. Bare concrete
walls and floor. Two small basement windows to tape off. Two outlets
to tape off. Furnace/hot water heater to not spray/paint. 10 minutes
to pile the basement contents into a pile in the middle of the room and
put a plastic tarp over the pile to keep paint off. Another 10 minutes
to take the important stuff out of the basement so there is no way it
can get painted by accident. I plan to paint the floor after the walls
so any minor paint drops won't be a problem.

I think I will try the roller first. $4 for a thick nap roller. I
already have the wire grill to hang over the edge of the 5 gallon
bucket. And a roller. So it won't be too onerous to see how rolling
will work.


-Jim


Well, I can tell you, I painted the exact same wall as this over 10
years ago. The idea was just a quick fix to clean it up so the kids
would have a room they could mess up without us being all over them to
clean it up (we put down padding and cheap industrial carpet too). I
didn't seal or prime it. Just took a thick roller and some inexpensive
paint and put it on. I'ts still on, no peeling or cracking, nothing.
This is in S. NH. so the temp varies.
Anyway, I'm not sure what you want for the final product, but if it is
a quick fix like mine a roller should be good. Rollers aren't power
tools, so you can drink beer while you use them... big plus.

-jtpr

wrote:
Shop will be in the basement. I want to paint the basement walls
white. Basement is dry. Great drainage of water away from the
foundation. Poured concrete walls. ... Best way to apply
the paint to the walls? Roller with really thick, long nap? Airless
sprayer?

I've had great results with Quikcrete multi-surface concrete sealer
(a urethane oil-base product, smell is terrible), and recommend this as
a first coat. Airless spray might work fine, but I'd stick to the
shaggy roller; you'll want to touch up with a brush, anyhow (voids
are inevitable), and did I mention, the odor is off-putting?

Controlling the paint coverage in spray is a tricky thing; you might
not want to learn on an important project.