Most basements are made of concrete or Masonry Contractor in Nashville block. In a good many cases the masonry (or concrete) is completely dry. If no water problem exists, a simple paint job can often take care of all decorating. Here's where Portland Cement Paint comes into the picture. Available in white plus tints or various colors for masonry, it can quickly dress up a drab masonry wall.
Sold as a dry powder to be mixed with water just before you apply it,Masonry Nashville TN cement paint looks best over a flat, uniform masonry surface. The cement wall should be clean and completely free of oil, oil paint, dirt or any other nonsense that will keep the paint from sticking to the masonry. Fill all cracks with patching cement and allow them to cure thoroughly.
Lightly dampen the masonry surface with water before you start the brush-work. The idea is to keep the wall from drawing moisture from the paint. The easiest technique here is to turn a garden pressure sprayer on the wall using a fine fog spray nozzle so that you moisten the area but don't soak it.
Mix the paint with water following the directions on the container. Cement paints are quite heavy and the ingredients tend to settle out, so keep stirring the paint as you use it. The brush used for applying this paint is a stiff fiber scrub brush. This isn't a lightweight coating that you just flow onto the masonry surface. Because the cement or masonry has many pores, you'll actually have to scrub the paint into the wall to get a decent looking job.
Dunk the brush into the paint and scrub back and forth over the masonry. Then scrub round and round until the area is covered. Plan to work on a relatively small section at a time. When this is finished move onto the next square.
Here's another fact about Portland Cement Paint. It must be moist-cured, that is kept very slightly damp for at least 12 hours after you put on the first coat. The second or finish coat should be kept moist for 48 hours. Again, a garden sprayer with a fog nozzle is the best mechanism to use. Allow the first coat to harden for 12 hours, dampen the
masonry surface and apply the second coat.
If this sounds like a great deal of work, keep in mind that you're applying a permanent coating to your masonry. As a matter of fact, when properly scrubbed onto the wall and carefully cured, cement paint becomes an actual part of the concrete masonry surface.
There is one big pitfall to this entire routine of finishing walls. In conscience we'll have to pass the sad word along to you. As noted, this phase of the job makes a big fat difference in the looks of the remodeled area. Because of that you may have a tendency to rush the work; even skimp here and there, as you work on the masonry.
There's a time limit on how long you can get away with this idea. For example, let's say you are so anxious to get on with the job that you decide not to waterproof a masonry wall that really is not very damp. Comes a wet spring and the paneling all buckles. Moral? Do it right!
