The basement can become a handy home workshop or a place to store things and trinkets you no longer need. You’ll need a few shelves, cabinets, and drawers to create extra storage, a place to store provisions, cans, and wine. There’s also nothing stopping you from setting up a laundry room or even an office, if the conditions are right for that. We give you tips on how to update your cellar and repaint its walls. Order a basement renovation and you’ll be satisfied.
Painting the basement: what to look for?
Choosing the right paint for the basement is the key stage of the work. It would not be a bad idea to choose a product that is also suitable for outdoor use – so you will provide the room with the maximum level of protection against harmful factors. But let’s get to the point. What to paint the cellar with? We are looking for paint that will withstand occasional contact with water, since the humidity in the room can be somewhat higher than in the living part of the house. The paint should have a high vapor permeability of the paint coating (so that the walls can “breathe”), resistance to mechanical influences, especially to washing and cleaning, good adhesion. The paint should not only be highly resistant to the above factors, but also designed for painting different types of surfaces.
Basement repair: preparing the walls for painting
Basement renovation in Toronto should begin with proper preparation of the walls. In the case of new walls, remember to keep the plaster for at least 4 weeks or the time specified by the manufacturer. Then, if necessary, we wash the walls and leave them to dry. The surfaces should then be primed. Unstable, chalky, dusty or highly absorbent substrates are treated with a primer. For new, previously unpainted substrates, paint with 10-15% water dilution is applied (the same preparation should then also be used for subsequent painting). Grounds previously painted with emulsion paints, dust-free and undamaged, with a homogeneous surface and good adhesion, can be painted without primer.
The range of work required is much wider if we are renovating a basement that has already been painted before. First of all, it is necessary to remove lime, glue or poorly adhered paint from the base. Once the wall is washed and dried, we must also get rid of any contaminants that may interfere with paint adhesion, such as grease stains. We wash them with water and detergent. Then we clean the surfaces with a spatula and a suitable fungicide. Follow the instructions on the product packaging – wash the walls again, then seal all damages and cracks with jointing compound, smooth and smooth out. If the surface is dusty and unstable, a primer can be applied after dusting the wall.
What is the right way to paint a basement?
When painting the walls in the basement, you should choose a day that is not too humid (humidity should not exceed 80%). Air and wall temperature at least +5°C and no more than +28°C – these conditions have a huge impact on the drying time of paint and coating properties. We must choose the type of brush and roller depending on the specific surface to be painted and the type of paint.
We start by painting the harder to reach areas, corners of the room, around light switches, window sills. Then move on to larger areas. Apply at least two coats of paint at intervals of 1-2 hours. Try to apply the paint thoroughly and evenly, using a roller to apply copious amounts of paint. Finally, ventilate the room to get rid of the characteristic smell.
The basement is an extra space in our house that we can easily adapt for additional purposes. All you need to do is repair it – properly prepare the walls and paint the surface thoroughly.
