barn paint on concrete

[Jules Richardson]

Anyone know if plain old white barn paint will adhere (and stay adhered for a few years) to bare concrete without any kind of priming?

I just sealed a couple of my exterior-facing basement walls against moisture, and the whiteness makes quite a difference to the brightness levels down there compared to gray concrete - so it got me thinking about doing some of the internal walls with the barn paint that I have.

Maybe it'll just all fall off, though, or maybe it'll go chalky and leave marks on anything that rubs up against it... but OTOH it's not like it has to cope with sunlight or rain, so it's probably just a case of how well it'll stick to concrete instead of wood.

Eventually, and once I know I've got all the moisture issues under control, I'll sheetrock down there and make the space more habitable - in the meantime it just needs to be functional, but not pretty :-)

cheers

Jules

[RicodJour]

Use a masonry waterproofing paint such as UGL or a cement-based white coating such as Thoroseal. Either will take care of the cosmetics and damp-proofing at the same time. Regular paint will be but a bandaid and you'll still have to redo it at a later date - i.e. wasted time and money.

R

[Jules Richardson]

No, this is specifically about the 'interior' walls which aren't inherently damp (although there's moisture in the air, so I should probably run a dehumidifier down there for a while if I do try it) - the ones which form the perimeter of the property I'm doing with Behr masonry waterproofer (and hydraulic cement in a couple of spots where it leaks quite a lot when it rains - I'll see how that goes and hopefully I won't have to dig down to the footer next spring and seal from the outside).

I just noticed how much of a light gain I was getting from the white Behr stuff on the outer walls, so got to wondering if I can do the 'dry' walls with the barn paint.

I checked one of the actual buckets of barn paint, but it's a bit vague on the matter. It says for exterior *wood* surfaces, then goes to list a few examples - one of which is masonry (which, as far as I'm concerned, is not wood :-)

cheers

Jules

[RicodJour]

If it'll stand up to the weather it'll stand up to the interior conditions. Have at it!

R

[micky]

Where is the dampness coming from if not the walls or the floor? It may not be comng from the entire wall, but I'll bet a lot is coming from the lowest 6 or 12 inches.

The power of ugl waterproof paint is amazing. We recently did a basement that had water on the floor after a rain, and now it only has a little bit of water where the freezer sits (there was no room to move it and it's heavy) and in the room two rooms away, which we didn't paint.

I first used this stuff in 1961. I don't rremember what brand, but it was a rental property and it was full of cobwebs, and the tenant got a discount in rent in return for doing repairs. Instead of doing repairs he complained to the city that the basement was wet, and the buliding inspector suggested waterproof paint. I was 14 and did the work. I didn't clean anything, including the cobwebs, and I think I only did one long wall, but by gally the basement was dry afterwards.

I figure, if anything it works better now.

[Jules Richardson]

Mostly the north basement wall, which on the outside is at the bottom of a slight slope, and has several "problems":

a) Some (but seemingly minor) damp at the 6-12" level and below,

b) A concrete block section which probably used to be a window years ago,

c) A concrete block section where the well-pump lines run through (and possibly used to be a doorway when the house was built in the '40s - it's about 3' wide and 5' tall, so complete overkill just for some water lines),

d) A rough section in the cast wall about 3' from floor level and 3' long which leaked in 6 or 7 spots (on the outside there's a concrete wood- chute to one side and a 'trough' for another basement window on the other, so I think water collects up against this section and doesn't drain well).

... I've tackled (b) and (d) with hydraulic cement before painting with sealer, because I'd get rainwater visibly dripping through there during heavy storms. I'm hoping that just the sealer alone will work for (a) and (c), but time will tell!

The floor itself does get damp where things stand too, though, so I need to seal that eventually (be it with paint, or plastic sheet and a floor over the top), but getting that north wall dry will help enormously I think.

Hopefully I'll find that, too! I'm hoping that it, along with the cement, will knock most of the problems on the head. If I can cut down on the regular damp a bit - and avoid actually having puddles in there after heavy storms - I'll be happy :-)

My main worry is longevity, I think - I really don't know how long that sealing paint lasts.

cheers

Jules

[micky]

Well, I painteed that basement wall in 1962. That's 49 years.

Of course, I haven't been in the house since.

And I'm pretty sure my mother sold it;, or I would own it now. .....Hmmm. I should look into that.

[aemeijers]

Can't see your basement from here, but from your description, you need to start OUTSIDE the house. Expose that north wall down to the footers, seal properly, install or fix the footer drain, and regrade that yard so water doesn't build up against basement wall. If it is surface water, problem is easy. If wall is deeply buried, and it is underground water, it gets harder. Sounds like wall was exposed or half-exposed in the past. May need a swale 10-15 feet out from house directing surface water around the house. If it is below-ground water, a slit trench full of gravel, directing water to a daylight drain or drywell. Water takes path of least resistance- give it someplace easier to go than your basement.

[HeyBub]

Contemporary outside paints no longer go "chalky." Paints were, back in the day, formulated to undergo controlled shedding of their exterior surface. When the paint turned "chalky", a bit was washed off with the rain, taking stains and dirt with it. The result: The painted surface looked better.

[RicodJour]

Exterior stain still does the slow-death-by-chalking thing, but it doesn't peel like paint.

R

[clare]

The OP specified these are NOT perimeter walls - they are INTERNAL walls - so NO moisture can be coming out of the concrete

[Jules Richardson]

Yes, that may turn out to be the case. I'm certainly not going to think that the job's done (and start building internal frames/sheetrock walls over the top of things) until we've had a good few storms - and actually, the snowmelt next spring should be a good test.

Even then, I'm not sure if I'll have to dig down as far as the footers - it might be that the only problem area is that 3' section between wood chute and window bay, in which case I can probably just dig down the 5' or so to seal from the outside, and run a drainage channel under the wood chute so that water doesn't build up against that wall. But we'll see :-)

I'm not sure what they ever did in terms of outside sealing / drainage on the property - but after 60 years or so it might not be in such good condition anyway!

cheers

Jules

[HellT]

Does the container have any kind of label on it? I've seen barn paint that is only for wood, and I've seen barn paint that is good on masonry, too, *and* resists moisture, mold, and mildew. If your barn paint is the latter, it'd probably work nicely on basement walls.

I'm doing my basement right now. I didn't use a sealer. I'm applying Watertite LX by Zinsser. I think they also make Rustoleum. Anyhow, this product is comparable to Ugl Dri-lock in terms of what it does (water resistance, mold and mildew resistance) and the warranty, but it is a brighter white, and Menards had it on sale, so...

One other potential thing about the barn paint - how's its odor? If it's extremely strong, you might not want to use it indoors.

We're talking Minnesota, right? In which case, once you eventually get around to sheetrocking, I'd suggest first putting some insulating panels on the walls before sheetrocking. It will make the basement a lot more comfortable in the winter.