My basement is seeping water in from outside so my husband and I want to try to fix it ourselves by painting the walls with KILZ or some other type sealant.
My question is that the walls are dirty, cobwebby, and just plain icky. I'm sure that the walls must be clean before we can apply the sealant. So, do I just get a rag and a bucket and get to it? If I'm already having a problem with moisture, won't this just add more? How can I clean the walls (made of asphalt or concrete, I believe)to prepare them for the sealant?

Thanks

TSP is one of the leading cleaning products that cuts through any kind of dirt and grime. Most likely most of the dirt an grime will be removed with plain water if we are talking stuff like cobwebs, dust, that floated onto the walls over time. Stains from say splattered stuff, foot prints (Yes I see that on walls a lot) you would hit with TSP or if they are greasy stains a degreaser – then rinse.

I would also suggest waiting until the summer time when you can open up all available doors and windows to the outside, bring in decent lighting and fans and after washing the walls have fans blowing on the walls and a good sized fan blowing the air out a window or door with other doors/windows open to allow air to flow into the basement.

Another reason for summer is because the ground water (behind the walls) will have a chance to dry up a little (if you live in a part of the world that doesn’t have summer rains often).

I would allow the fans to blow for a day or two – if you are lucky and time it for low humidity days you may be able to take a lot of moisture out of the air in the basement, drying out the walls even more. You want to remove as much moisture as possible before you apply your sealant.

quote:

Originally posted by Rainmaker:
My basement is seeping water in from outside so my husband and I want to try to fix it ourselves by painting the walls with KILZ or some other type sealant.
My question is that the walls are dirty, cobwebby, and just plain icky. I'm sure that the walls must be clean before we can apply the sealant. So, do I just get a rag and a bucket and get to it? If I'm already having a problem with moisture, won't this just add more? How can I clean the walls (made of asphalt or concrete, I believe)to prepare them for the sealant?

Thanks

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You can do all the cleaning till you are blue in the face, and seal the inside with anything or everything on the market , and you would be wasting your time and money....

There is ONLY ONE WAY to cure the problem and that is from the outside...
There are two ways to fix it....
One is to dig down to the basement floor level, clean the walls and then seal it..That is the worse senario...
or
Maybe all you need to do is to make sure the surface water can be drained off before it soaks into the ground...

I would suggest calling in an expert to check this out...
Your problem can be VERY expensive or just a little....

KILZ works well as a stain blocker but will do very little to stop water from coming through your walls.

If you are going to seal it, it just has to be clean enough to hold the paint.

You need a product that is especially designed to block water on cement or concret block walls. I can't remember the product name but I think you have seen the demo in stores where they have water in the block and the outside it dry. If I find it in my searches, I will post it.

After it is sealed, you can paint it any color you want.

One thing I think I should tell you, that no sealing will last forever. The only permanent remedy (at least for the next 10-20 years) is to dig around the outside wall, seal from the outside, put in a good drainage system and back fill with sand/gravel. By draining the water away, you relieve the hydraulic water pressure trying to get in to your basement.

Here is one product.

I agree with Frittz on this one. There are products that they say will seal the wall and they will to a certain extent but here's the deal.

Picture your basement wall as a sponge. On the outside you have water and dirt. Now what you want to do is put a layer of sealant on the wrong side of the sponge. Picture your sealant product as a piece of glass. The sponge is still going to be soaking wet all the time and the water is going to want to get in... the wet concrete is likely to develop cracks and allow the water in and your thin layer of sealant is never going to work no matter what it's made of.

You can do this as a temporary fix until you have the cash to do the job right, but start saving. You need to put in proper drainage tiles and sealant on the outside of the concrete to keep it dry. Concrete is not meant to be soaked with water all the time and eventually if this goes unrepaired, you will have more serious issues.

In the meantime... consider using WOW's approach, but keep in mind that you need to save up to do the job right.