[Summit] Summit Digest, Vol 94, Issue 13

[Anthony Arrigo]

Hi,

I saw your posting.  I did a ton of research on this topic before I renovated my 1920s basement.  I had fluorescence on my walls, too, and lots of cracks, etc.  

The first thing is to make sure that you've mitigated all of the water issues around the outside of the house first.  I had to put in a french drain and re-route the downspouts to get the water away from our foundation.

Once the outside water issues were fixed, I used TSP and a wire brush to get all of the grunge off the walls.  Then I parged the walls with mortar to fill in the cracks. Then I used three or four coats of Drylock paint to cover the walls all the way around the basement.  That process worked great and the walls were bone dry after everything was done.

If you're going to put up studs and drywall, there are a lot of other considerations that have to be taken into account for basements.  Again, I did a ton of research on this and I'm pretty handy so I did all of the work myself, but finishing a basement requires a lot of moisture mitigation before you can put up walls.  You can't just put up studs and drywall and call it a day.  You'll have mold in no-time and will have to tear it all down.  The work, though, is not hard and if you're handy you can do it yourself.  I estimated we saved well over $10,000 by doing the work.

Here are some photos of how the project went.

If you have specific questions about materials or processes, let me know.  I'll be glad to give my two cents.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/anthonyfarrigo/7963581676/in/set-72157631483345260



On Jan 18, 2013, at 1:00 PM, summit-request at sna.providence.ri.us wrote:

> ------------------------------
> 
> Message: 3
> Date: Thu, 17 Jan 2013 13:54:21 -0500 (EST)
> From: think3mm <think3mm at aol.com>
> To: summit at sna.providence.ri.us
> Subject: [Summit] Sealing Basement Walls?
> Message-ID: <8CFC2FB31EB9FCD-1A3C-4773E at webmail-m055.sysops.aol.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
> 
> I'm interested in sealing my dry but quite-fluoresced cement/brick basement walls this winter as preparation for paint, or if I feel real ambitious studs and drywall.  Does anyone have experience sealing their brick/cement basement walls in a typical 100+ year-old east side home?  Did you use a contractor and would you recommend them?  
> 
> Thanks in advance!
> E. Martin
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