Cementing Basement Walls
 

I won't get into too much detail right now but I am curious if anyone here knows much about cementing over basement walls. My roommate last year used water soluble paint to decorate our ironically slightly used basement and our landlord told us to get rid of it so they could show the basement off to future tenants.

So apparently the paint does not come off with water, soap, or paint remover. The paint remover got rid of it a little bit but it made the walls look so much worse so we decided not to go that route. So we decided to paint over the paint as a temporary but hopefully permanent solution.

So now our landlord wants to cement over the basement, most likely on our dime. We have been talking to a lawyer, he has been trying to screw us over in other areas as well, but I want to get as many different opinions as possible about this.

If our basement does get cemented over, I want to make the argument of wear and tear so we do not have to pay for it. I have two pictures of the painted over walls and two pictures of walls that are showing wear. I think that is a strong enough argument but outside opinions would be very nice.

Sorry for the bad quality pictures. blah

http://www.mypicx.com/thumb/611126164_05242010_1.jpg

http://www.mypicx.com/thumb/54517080_05242010_2.jpg

http://www.mypicx.com/thumb/543981254_05242010_1.jpg

http://www.mypicx.com/thumb/331214178_05242010_2.jpg

The wall in the top two pictures looks like crap, and if I was the landlord, I'd be upset.

It looks like you painted graffiti on the wall and then tried to paint over just the graffiti and/or strip just the graffiti. Did you paint over the entire wall to try to make it one uniform color?

The wall in the bottom two pictures looks bad too, but it looks like random moldy spots and doesn't seem quite as bad.

Did you paint the entire wall?

Yeah, I don't understand what's going on in the pictures there either. Is that what you painted it to look like? Or what it looks like after you tried to strip some of it off with paint remover?

You can't paint someone else's house, dude. If you did that to my basement, I'd be making you pay to fix it too.

Edit to add: Regardless of how it got that way, I think a far better solution than cementing over it is to just give it a new uniform coat of paint. Get an outdoor paint (the kind meant for cement/industrial floors) in a shade of cement gray, and do it right.

it's called parging.

Yeah if a couple of coats of paint won't cover it or your landlord doesn't want the look of painted concrete on his walls, then you parge it. Buy a couple of bags of surface bonding cement, add some acrylic additive, mix it well and start troweling. Use a 4" x 16" trowel. Or hire someone to do it so you don't fuck up his walls even worse.

If the problem is that old paint is bleeding through your new painted topcoat, you need to seal it first with B.I.N. Stir the BIN really well or you'll have problems. DO NOT USE ANY OTHER BRAND OF "Stain Sealing" PAINT. THEY DO NOT WORK. Tell the asshole at home depot who tries to tell you otherwise that Squirell Nutkin told him to go buttfuck himself in the mouth.

After you put the BIN on you can topcoat it with any decent paint. Use an epoxy fortified paint, otherwise if there is any dampness, latex won't dry. Try this before you start parging.

Don't be painting on peoples houses dude, WTF?

First of all, we realize it was a mistake. The only reason the graffiti paint was applied is because it was water soluble and we successfully washed if off when we test it out. It was obviously a very stupid mistake and we take responsibility for it and are trying to find the most reasonable solution to fix it.

So yes, all we did at this point was cover the graffiti. It was an initial first step to cover it up. I emailed him last week telling him what we did and that he should come over so we can discuss what steps we should take next, if any. If he wants us to paint the entire basement, we would paint the entire basement. If he wants us to parge the walls, we would. He has not taken up the response. Our latest water bill had four months that we already paid attached to it so I have a very strong feeling he is going to try to fuck us and not work with us to fix this problem.

He said we had to cement it over unfortunately. I was hoping we could just paint the entire basement, we have helped painted a friend's apartment before with very good results, but apparently not.

As I said, I don't know anything about this so I'm trying to gain as much information about it as possible right now.

That's not taking responsibility. He has every right not to accept a paint job by you and your friends -I wouldn't trust you either.

The water bill is a different issue. if it's in your names, you should have paid it directly. If it's in his name, it's his problem, presumably you have recept/proof of all monies paid to him so it should be pretty easy to demonstrate his "oversight" in this matter.

Why can't you just use a cement colored paint, like gray, or something used on garage floors and repaint the whole thing. Re-cementing is a stupid and costly way to cover up paint on a cement wall. Resist.

If there is water seeping in or the wall is moist nothing is going to fix that until that issue is dealt with.

Maybe they could blow it with hot air?

The Cask of Amontillado? I'm just sayin' is all...

Nobody mentioned seepage or wetness, just water-soluble.

Yes, that would be unfortunato, indeed.

I know UT - I was asking if that was an issue.

pierce...I won't point out the fact that you shouldn't have painted the walls since others have. In the future, assuming this was for photography purposes, use painted 4x8 plywood sheets as a background. I digress.

I think the issue at hand is that we are dealing with paint. I can't see how he can push for having the whole basement cemented. There has to be a way to fix the problem to everyone's satisfaction without having to re-cement the basement. Make no mistake, it is up to you to make it right.

I would recommend having an estimate from at least 2 or 3 PROFESSIONAL painters. Get their opinions and estimates and take them to the landlord. Tell them the plan to get the property back to a satisfactory condition and tell him that YOU and your roommate(s) are the ones paying.

Finally, follow through with it.

Where is this roommate now? Was he on the lease when this happened?
Seems like he is culpable in this. After all his painting started the problem.

The cement (plaster) must have something to stick to. Cement will not stick to latex paint (assuming you meant latex interior wall paint). The process of 'sticking' involves a bonding of that cement to something that the cement can be absorbed into - cinder block, concrete, stone. That cement would just peal off the paint.

You might consider a sand blasting solution. Or (if you can address the flood and humidity problems) high pressure water hose.

What is the basement vintage and material? 1930 concrete? That was typically sandy. Often easier to remove paint from. And yes, you do have in interesting problem - ignoring the legal aspects.

The reason you couldn't get the graffiti off is because cement will absorb the colour. It's porus(sp?).

I agree with monster about your friend. Did you give him a swift kick up the arse?

I also agree that you shouldn't have to parge the whole thing but you should have to fix it by painting it. Surely painted walls will look better than bare cement anyway.

My other suggestion is to wait till he goes out next time and do a runner. ;)

Yup.

I've asked that question and have not gotten a response yet. My email server is down right now so she may have responded. I don't know. I will send an email from another address tomorrow morning if it does not go back up. But anyways, I talked to someone who works for a company that basically can destroy an entire house and build it back up again and he suggested painting as well. No one seems to know why we HAVE to cement it over. That is why my alarm is going off.

No water seepage.

That's more or less what I'm leaning towards right now. My summer job doesn't start until next Tuesday so I've been keeping the house in very good condition and the maintenance guy said he was VERY impressed by it yesterday so at least I have that going for me. As for the basement, there is no doubt we will pay for a repainting of the basement. It was a very stupid mistake in hindsight, the porous cement makes sense now, and we will have to take responsibility for it. But, since the other half of the basement is falling apart from wear and tear I don't want him to take advantage of us and make us pay for cementing it over if he was going to be forced to do that anyways.

I will pay for painting over what we did. I am not paying (or at least will fight it) for him to remodel the entire basement. It looked like shit to begin with. That is exploitation. I realize we put ourselves in that position but there is a line.

I don't know where this is going so I am putting off a front like my roommates and I are on the exact same page. In reality we are not and it is getting extremely frustrating. So, currently, I am "protecting" the roommate as of now but in private we are making sure he puts in his fair share. But last thing I want right now is for everyone to start getting mad and blaming each other.

I was just wondering.
From what I gather, one tenant (Bob) decided to paint the walls (reason unknown) and is apparently no longer living there. After which you, and I assume other roommates, tried to cover what he did because it looked like crap. Just wasn't sure if he disappeared or not.

Thats about it.