Create a Bright, Dry Space in a Damp, Gloomy Basement

Create an exercise space in an unfinished basement, but first coat the walls with Drylok to prevent excess moisture.

Yoga mats, dumbbells and practice bikes. My wife's growing interest in physical fitness had transformed our living room into a gymnasium. And my suggestions to piece of work out downstairs were always met with, "I'm not working out down in that gloomy, cluttered basement!" Then, information technology was either enjoy my morning paper and cup of coffee in my neighbor'southward living room, or create a not-gloomy infinite for the Mrs.' practice equipment in the basement. After being turned away past my neighbors, I got to work.

Before

Half of our basement was fully finished and occupied by teenagers; the other, unfinished half we used as storage. I decided to clean upward, organize and partition off a section of the storage room and convert it into a workout wonderland. Information technology was either that or evict one of the teenagers, simply the wife resisted on that front end. I couldn't beget to fully end the walls and ceiling; instead, I decided to brighten up the space with plenty of lighting and some fresh paint on the walls.

The block wall I chose to paint occasionally got damp if in that location were heavy bound rain showers, so I decided to apply DRYLOK EXTREME Masonry Waterproofer. This product is designed to stop h2o seepage and go along the interior of the wall dry. Regular paint would take started to skin later the kickoff wet flavor. I painted during a dry stretch in the autumn but ran a dehumidifier in the room for a couple days just to brand sure the wall had a low wet content.

AFTER

The last time I painted a cake wall, the only colors available were white and blackness. Black isn't much of a motivator, and I was afraid straight-up white would create an "insane asylum" effect. So I was thrilled to detect out that DRYLOK EXTREME can exist tinted to any of nine colors. I decided to go with a two-tone/wainscot await and chose platinum for the upper half and grey for the lower.

Later on sweeping the wall thoroughly with a broom, I snapped a chalk line 32 in. up and ran masking tape to the bottom of the line. Another choice is to run the paint on the first section a little long and then snap a line, but sometimes the chalk makes a mess on the finished surface and is hard to clean up. I started with the top half so any drips on the lower half wouldn't matter. Once the elevation half was dry, I pulled off the existing record and used the painted line every bit a guide. I installed the second line of tape so there was about 1/8 in. of platinum pigment extending across the tape. This ensured a modest overlap and eliminated the chance of voids between the two colors.

I laid down a heavy outset coat with a 3/iv-in.-nap roller, and and then went back with a brush and pushed the wet paint into all the mortar joints and minor recesses in the cake (larger recesses should exist filled with hydraulic cement first). I so made some other pass with the roller just to polish out the texture. It's important that all the holes be completely filled. Even tiny pinholes can allow moisture through. I applied the second coat with the roller simply.

Once the painting was complete, I threw downward some snap-together rubber mats and moved the contentious equipment into the new workout room. My wife was thrilled with her bright, new space, and I was happy because it was a cheap and easy solution. The kids are a little disgruntled all the same—now that their female parent is making more frequent trips downstairs, their dingy rooms are getting a lot more noticed. For more information on DRYLOK EXTREME or to meet the brochure with color options, go to: http://www.drylok.com/formulas/drylok-farthermost/

— Mark Petersen, Contributing Editor

carpenterinny1939.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.familyhandyman.com/article/create-a-bright-dry-space-in-a-damp-gloomy-basement/

Share this post