Painting "poured concrete"(?) wall in basement

[BETAC-T]

I bought a house that has a large, fairly high, basement. The walls look like solid vertical slabs each about 2 feet wide with a vertical cement seam line between them. I can't really tell if they were solid slabs that were dropped into place, or if the walls were made by making a form and pouring in concrete. In some of the vertical seam lines, at the same level on each seam, I can see where a small chip of concrete has broken off the wall and I can see a piece of metal about 3/4-inch high that looks like it is the end of a metal strip that goes horizontally through the wall. At just one of those chip/metal locations below grade level, a very small amount of water comes through after heavy rainstorms. The rest of the wall seems to be completely dry. I patched the one leak from the inside with a little DryLok cement and so far the leak is gone.

My question is, if I wanted to paint the basement walls, is there some particular type of paint I should use? I have heard of DryLok paint, but I don't know if I should use something like that. The walls are dry, but I just wondered if something like DryLok paint would still be a good idea in terms of sealing the walls to help prevent any future moisture from coming in.

Thanks.

[RickH]

I used 3 coats of the latex-based DryLoc on mine before I remodeled the basement. It's bone dry, but I had no seepage whatsoever prior, I just dry-locked it to not have any chance of musty humidity odors. It might hold your seepage for a year or so, but if you have seepage now it will be back someday dry-locked or not. Small seepage like this is easily fixed with an injection that a basement waterproofing contractor can make from the outside. And that is the proper thing to do first. But I highly recommend using dry-lock before putting up walls in any basement remodel.

[Art]

You have a poured concrete basement. The metal strips hold the 2 sides of the form together while the concrete is poured in.

Don't even think about painting your basement until you resolve your water seepage problem.

[DanG]

Waterproofing needs to be done on the outside. If you are wanting to treat from the inside, look at Xypex products:

You will have a much better chance.

[BETAC-T]

Thanks. I wasn't sure about that, so that really helps. After reading this, I did some Google searching based on what you wrote and found a lot more info, pictures, etc. -- including info and pictures about those metal "form ties".

I won't be doing anything until I am sure any water seepage issues are resolved.

[BETAC-T]

Thanks. I went to the website, looked at the videos, etc. It looks interesting. One website said it costs 2-4 times as much as DryLok, so that may be a factor.

[Art]

if you use the group or news or usenet page of google (whatever they call it now) you can search this group for clear instructions on waterproofing a basement. The easy stuff is making sure the lot is sloped away from the house. Also use drainpipes for you gutters. The hard thing is to put in a french drain around the outside of your house. You have to dig to the top of your footer, install perforated pipe, and then surround the pipe with gravel up to about 1 foot of the surface. The gravel should be surrounded by special fabric so mud doesn't seep into the gravel and pipe.