Concrete sealers

[Lou Morrissette]

I'm about to start framing my basement shop walls and want to seal the concrete walls. There are no leaks or cracks but just want a little insurance. I was considering Dryloc and am looking for pros & cons based on your collective experience with this and other sealants.
thanks
Lou

[Dave Anderson NH]

I used Dryloc to cuyt down on moisture transfer in my basement shop and it works well. I would buy the white since it reflects light well and will make your shop seem brighter. One MAJOR warning however. When I did my shop walls 3 or 4 years ago I bought the first 2 gallons in the oil based version since it was deemed slightly more effective. DON'T get the oil version. I started painting about 9PM after Sue and the dog had gone to bed on the second floor. The basement door was shut. About the time I opened the second gallon they both raced downstairs to the shop with various less than happy expressions and strong comments about the smell. It had woken both of them from a dead sleep two stories above. It also took about 2 days for all of the odor to dissapate. Needless to say, the next 6 gallons were all the latex version. I may be slow, but I'm not completely stupid.

[Rob Russell]

I've put 30-40 gallons (yup - 7 or 8 of the big 5 gallon pails) of the oil-based stuff on the basement walls at my Dad's cottage. I used oil-based because we had seepage and you need dry walls for the latex. Here's what I can tell you based on "been there, done that".

The basic steps are:
Prep the walls. I wire brushed them to knock off loose dirt and crumbly concrete. Then etch. Don't skimp on the etch, You want to make sure any of the efflourescence is taken care of. I have some spots where I didn't etch well enough, the white fuzzy efflourescence has come through and blistered the paint off. I'll ned to scrape, re-etch and repaint those areas. Rinse well. Really well. Use your shop vac to suck up the water. I used old terrycloth curtains to make a dam on the floor to catch the rinse water. You use a garden hose to rinse and will have a lot of water to suck up.
For you, using the latex, let the walls dry. To paint, get one of the big brushes they make for applying the stuff. You want to really work it into the pores. You will get lousy coverage, especially on the first coat. It's hard work painting, especially the first coat to do it well. You want to work into the pores, it's a big brush, the paint is thickand heavy and the surface is rough (so it resists brushing). The brush is worth cleaning, use lacquer thinner.
Put a drop cloth down when you paint, even if it's your basement. Even though the paint is thick, it will drip. If you see some spots on the floor - let them dry as spots and scrape them off.
Wear a respirator when etching and painting. I also used a high-velocity fan pointing out the hatchway with the basement windows open to help exhaust the fumes. It really stinks. I also had an old piece of the terrycloth curtain wrapped over my head to keep the paint out of my hair. Good thing noone got a picture of that or I'd never live that down as an avator. Imagine a guy with his wrapped in in old curtain and wearing a respirator :eek:.
The paint is has to be mixed well and HD wouldn't do it in their machine because they said the covers fly off. I got them to do one bucket and it did leak a little. If you have a 1/2", powerful drill (I used my old monster B&D right angle drill), get one of the jumbo size paint mixers. It took almost 1/2 an hour to mix up a 5 gallon pail by hand, maybe 10 minutes with the drill and it was a LOT easier.


The paint has worked well. We used to have standing water and now have a basement down there that will be dry enough to store stuff. It was a huge effort on my part (and it's only about 75% done :( ).

Hope this helps.

Rob

[Rich Konopka]

Hmm. funny that you brought this up. I just started a similar project when some new tools started displaying some rust.

Some other things to consider:
If you have poured concrete walls you might want to use Hydraulic cement ( Dryloc or Quikcrete) to hit all of the divots where the rebar is. Also, examine where the poured floor and walls intersect because it is also a source for moisture infiltration.

I also found that a I have a opening for my sump pump which is cover by a black plastic cover. It is a big source of moisture.

I just purchased a dehumidfier and hooked up a hose from it to the condensation pump for my Central AC. Seems to be working fine.

You can test for moisture infiltration very easily by taping on all sides a piece of aluminum foil to the floor/wall. After a few days remove and inspect for moisture.

[Rob Russell]

Also, examine where the poured floor and walls intersect because it is also a source for moisture infiltration.

I forgot to mention that I used the DryLock fast-setting hydraulic cement to seal the joint between the wall and floor. This is a concrete block basement, not poured. There were a few places where I had to patch over places in the wll that water was leaking in - in 1 case it was an active dribble when I was patching it.

[Lou Morrissette]

Thanks for all the great tips guys. Seems like you've saved me a lot of homework with your lessons learned. It appears as though this is a little more involved than a simple paint job, but well woth it.
Thanks again
Lou