Basement Concrete Work and Painting

Just a few days ago, I finally got the basement put back together! I tore it apart about 4.5 weeks ago at the end of July. Parts of the concrete foundation had been flaking since we moved in 13 years ago, and a skim coat of concrete had started peeling away in many spots. It was time to get dirty!

Here's a few different "locations" around our basement, with each of the areas shown from start to finish. First, back by where we have our bikes and rowing machine:

Peeled paint (most likely lead-based).


Chipping away at the skim coat that was loose.

I TOTALLY cleaned up that mess, and then realized there was more skim coat that I should chip away. So the next day, I made a brand new mess in the same spot:

About 7' wide and 5' high. With that "rough" spot near the top being extra deep.


The first layer of "vinyl concrete patch" on the wall. I really like working with that stuff.


More patching the next day (it can be built up, but needs a day to dry between).


Filling in the deepest gap.


More patching...


... and more patching.


The "deepest" area after 1 coat and then again after 5 or 6 coats.


After letting it fully cure for nearly 2 weeks, it looked like this, and I was ready to prime!


After 2 "spot" coats of primer, a 3rd coat of primer on everything, and a final coat of paint!

SIDE NOTE: I used vinyl concrete patch over something like hydraulic cement for 3 main reasons. First, you can put it on in thin layers. Hydraulic cement isn't made to stick to itself, but vinyl concrete is, so you can just put on thin layers instead of trying to fill a big hole in 1 go and having it slough off. Second, it's such a fine "grit" that it can be feathered to nearly nothing. I can put some on, let it dry for 15-60 minutes, and come back with a wet sponge to "thin" it down where I need to (like where it meets a high area that doesn't need to be built up at all). And third, I've used it before and really liked it: here's where I used it in 2013 on my foundation outside, and here's where I used it again in 2019. It's worth noting that the spots I patched in 2013 were still holding strong when I had to redo areas around them in 2019!

Anyway, here's the back corner of the same room. It wasn't as bad to start:

Random bike trainers and bike lights.


Spot primed, primed all over, and painted!

That room was a lot of work, but my proudest work happened back by the washer and dryer in the other room. As I chipped away at the sill under this basement window, I found so much that was loose!

I could stick my putty knife straight through to outside under that wooden window frame!


A few coats of concrete.


A little caulk too.


All done!

Here's near the bottom of our basement steps. It never looked horrible here, but it was never great either. It just needed a little work (and some sealing up top where the concrete meets the joists):

Better.

Here's back between the windows that are behind our big utility sink. There were parts of the edge of this window frame that were completely gone, as well as a big horizontal opening between the windows:

Patched up.


Painted and done!

Behind our washer and dryer weren't too bad. There were some nasty areas down low (and behind our big utility sink to the right of this), but I didn't get any photos of that.

Patching.


Painted.


The shelves match the wall for the first time ever.

The final "bad" area was at the back of this room with the washer and dryer. (I've show you 3 bigger spaces: the first 2 sets of images back by our bikes, the "not bad" area by our basement steps, and then back here by the washer, dryer, windows, and my work bench.) This area has been flaking so much crap off for years. It was a mess. I was happiest to get this area (and back by our bikes) cleaned up so that we could actually touch the walls without hearing crap hit the floor for the next 5 seconds.

Lots of paint scraping, and a few chunks (like that big circle) of concrete
that chipped off. And the lower part of that window sill up there was a mess.


Conrete and paint chips. Delicious.


That dark section near the floor was a lot of chipped out concrete.


After a round of vinyl concrete patch.


Lots of work down low in this area.


After about 3 or 4 days of patching. (Again, the patching doesn't take long,
but then it needs 24 hours to cure before putting on another coat.)


After 10 days of curing, ready for primer and paint!


Primed and painted!


Boom.


Note the rebuilt window sill as well.

So I finished up painting about 10 days ago. That felt like a victory and that it was DONE. But then I still had a lot of stuff to clean and put back. I washed all the floors and walls (that weren't painted) and washed all the rugs down there to get rid of the last of any lead paint dust. (I cleaned out our ShopVac really well before I started, I put in a new filter, and I even wrapped that filter with a new cloth filter as well, and now I need to trash both of those filters and put in a new one.) After cleaning, I needed to put things away. So here are 4 final photos of those 2 "main" areas with everything put back:

Our bike area. My wife rowed this morning!




Back by the washer and dryer. With the walls looking great and everything put
back nicely, I now notice the chipping floor. Time for another project?...


I just like walking back there and being able to brush against the walls without crap falling off the walls!

I'm not technically done. This project was about 4/5s of our basement, but there's still more directly behind where I was standing to get that last photo. (It would have been impossible to do it all at once because if I were to pull EVEYTHING away from the walls, we'd run out of places to temporarily store it.) Back there is the boiler, the hot water heater, and 2 big shelving units FULL of Rubbermaids with decorations and such. So I'll end up moving all of that into these newly cleaned parts of the basement so I can access those walls. That will be the most daunting task of what's left (I hope). I'm not starting that just yet, but I'd still like to get it done this fall. We'll see...