Sunday, February 4, 2007

Painting Basement Walls?

Question:
I am going to be painting my concrete foundations walls to help brighten my basement, but the walls are not very smooth (lines from the foundation forms, bolt holes filler, etc...).

Does anyone know any tricks on smoothing the walls before I paint them? I am not looking to get them super smooth, but want to take the high points down. I am hoping I do not have to take a grinder to the wall or chisel away and potentially leave larger holes.

Answer:
There are a couple of ways to mask imperfections that come to mind. One is to paint the walls using a true flat finish to soften the rough spots when the lighting hits them. The other is not so simple: They make a product called liner paper, which is a fiber based 36" non pasted wallpaper designed to mask some imperfections (maybe 90%). Once this liner paper is installed you basically have a blank canvas to work with. I've installed several liners over the years and have found them to work very well for painting or hanging wallpaper over the new surface.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hello,

I was reading over newkirkpainting.blogspot.com and figured I'd email you to see if it would be possible to post an article, a brief guide to be exact, on how to stain a Masonite door. I feel that it definitely fits the theme of your blog and would be helpful to your readership and other visitors. If you have any other questions, I'd be happy to answer them.

-Jonathan Hunt
jhunt@thatagency.com