Home Repair forum - Sealing/painting finished walls in basement? Moisture issues?

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Sealing/painting finished walls in basement? Moisture issues?

DCheesi

2006-04-30, 8:21 am

I recently bought a house that has a finished basement. All the walls in
the house have a textured plaster(?) finish on them. I've recently noticed
that the upstairs walls were painted over, but in the basement the textured
surface was left bare. The house is only a few years old, and the paint
upstairs doesn't look especially new, so I'm thinking maybe it was done
this way intentionally when it was built?

Anyway, thanks to some territorial kitties, I was thinking about sealing &
painting some wall areas. But I'm concerned that sealing the basement walls
(making them non-porous) could cause problems with moisture in the walls?

I don't have access to the underlying cinderblock in the finished areas, so
I don't know if they sealed that or not. Looking at the block in the
storage area I don't see any obvious sealer coating, but then I'm no
expert.

I could just paint, but any paint that's porous enough to let moisture
though might let some residual odor through as well(?). Also it would be
nice avoid having any new stains seep into the wall either. Any ideas?

Thanks,
DCheesi

m Ransley

2006-04-30, 11:21 am

The texture you see might be DryLock a waterproof paint. I Dont know if
you can paint over DryLock, read a can label, talk to a real pro at a
real paint store.

DCheesi

2006-04-30, 2:21 pm

ransley@webtv.net (m Ransley) wrote in news:2152-4454C391-50@storefull-
3136.bay.webtv.net:

> The texture you see might be DryLock a waterproof paint. I Dont know if
> you can paint over DryLock, read a can label, talk to a real pro at a
> real paint store.
>
>

No, I don't think so. I guess I wasn't very clear about what I've got here.
The basement was fully finished (minus laundry & storage) when the house
was built. These are full-fledged sheetrock(?) walls on wooden framing,
within the actual cinderblock. I'm afraid that if the cinderblock lets
moisture in, and I seal the inner wall surface, the moisture will just soak
into the wood framing and rot it. BTW, only part of the basement is buried,
as I'm on a hill. But of course the spots where the cats sprayed are all
along the bottom where it is below ground level.

Thanks,
DCheesi

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