It’s always amazing what a big difference a simple and cheap coat of paint can make to any space and having just finished painting our cellar, I still can’t help being surprised. The walls used to be yellowish (I assume they were white at some point), dirty and covered in flaky paint.
After spending hours and hours scrubbing the walls and removing any loose bits that we possibly could with a paint scraper and wire brush, then giving the walls and ceiling a sweep to remove any loose bits, dust and a lot of cobwebs, it was time to get out the paintbrush – well, kind of.
Our middle cellar room (it’s not really a room any more, as we’ve removed one of the walls) was by far the area with the biggest damp problem. Luckily the walls weren’t too bad, but there were a few small mould areas behind an old cupboard (I’d guess it had been there since the sixties).
With our cellar starting to resemble a fungi farm – okay, that might be a slight exaggeration, but even just a few black spots mould are not the nicest of things to have in your cellar, so we had to take action before we could even start to think about painting the walls.
Most of the mould came straight off with the loose bits of paint, but to be extra sure that the area was clean, we decided to give the walls a quick wipe down with watered down bleach (we used about 1 part bleach to 7 parts water) first.
Yep, I live a totally glamorous existence….
After letting the walls dry, it was finally time to get painting.
We didn’t bother priming the walls, as the brickwork had already been painted and, other than the flaky paint, the walls and mortar were sound. Our bricks are also not very porous, which means that the paint adheres to them quite easily. If you do have a more porous or powdery surface, it’s good practice to prime the walls with a stabilising solution first.
Painting the brick took quite a bit longer than painting our other plastered walls in the house, especially as I only used a paint brush for all painting! As the brickwork is uneven, it takes quite a bit more effort to get the paint into every last dint and crack. Luckily most of our walls still had an existing layer of paint covering them, so the additional work wasn’t too bad.
As our cellar isn’t the lightest of rooms and it’s just going to be used for storage, we decided to paint everything white. It’s bright and most importantly has a nice clean feel to it.
After a lot of deliberating, we opted to use an outdoor paint. We had considered using damp proofing paint, but decided that as the floor seemed to be the main source of the damp our best option would be to paint the walls in a breathable paint, which means that if there is any moisture in the brickwork it won’t be trapped and can still escape into the room.
No solution down there is ever going to be perfect (unless we sort the damp issue from the outside, which we are still planning to do) but either way it is already a huge improvement and a step in the right direction.
Luckily the cellar is already much, much drier than before, so with a bit of luck we shouldn’t have too many problems anyway. We’re also planning on installing a dehumidifier which should take care of any excess moisture that we may still have.
Of course you don’t have to use exterior masonry paint, but it’s durable and easy to wipe clean. Before we started painting the whole cellar, we test painted a few areas to see how well the paint would hold up and cover the brickwork. It would be pretty annoying to paint everything only to find that the paint ends up falling off the walls again, but having left the test area for about 4 weeks, we had no sign of yellowing, damp or flaking, so we were good to go!
We of course have no guarantee that the paint will stay in this condition, but we figured it would still be a better option than sealing the brick with damp proofing paint, even if it means we may have a bit more maintenance down the line.
I already love how much cleaner the cellar feels and am ridiculously excited about adding storage and finally being able to tick this whole project off our to-do list.
Here’s what’s left to do:
- Clear cellar & remove old floor – done.
- Level and compact floor ready to receive new concrete – done.
- Add damp proof membrane – done.
- Lay concrete floor – done.
- Remove loose paint and clean walls & ceiling – done.
- Repair stairs
- Paint walls – done.
- Paint floor
- Add storage
- Move boiler
- Paint door
- Tidy electrics
- Add lighting
- Add wine storage
We obviously still need to finish off the painting, especially around the floor, but it’s already so much better than before. Now I can’t wait to get painting the floor!
What job would you most like to tick off your list? Do you love ticking boxes off your to-do list as much as we do?
It must feel so good getting to the paint bit. Aren’t basement a lot like supressed guilt, easy to ignore but dealt with it gives a lot of energy back… You were smart to go with the vapor open paint. Waterbased just makes the mortar disintegrate as vapor will always move to the warm dry side of the wall. A good drainage and some exterior insulation will have that wall dry and warm for another 30 years!
You’re so right about the guilt and reward. I used to hate going into the dark and dirty cellar, but now it’s jsut like an extra room in the house. I can’t wait to get some shelves installed to get the junk back down there and rest of the house looking better again, too.
Cx
You’re doing such a great job, as always. I think white is a good idea too since it will help to make the space see brighter, and what amazing storage capacity!! I love ticking jobs off the to-do list but still often feel too overwhelmed by things. That said, the new windows for the front of the house are being fitted on Monday and Tuesday next week so finally progress!
Thank you so much, Lins! So happy to hear you like it. Ticking the big things off a list is always particularly satisfying and new windows are definitely a big thing to invest in!
Cx
I always forget you don’t have a brownstone in Brooklyn because we have all the same problems!
I guess a lot of old houses have similar problems. It’s interesting that they’re so similar though Angela!
Cx
Hi,
What a great cellar project!
My wife and I are currently undertaking a very similar project on our Victorian terrace. We were using our cellar as storage but it was a bit damp (and smelly) down there and rather dusty and messy. We do not want to convert it to a new room rather make it a cleaner, drier usable storage space. We have a 2 year old and his old toys that we have been keeping down there need a better home. Overall the cellar inst that damp and we very rarely get standing water or wet walls down there so we are looking for the most cost effective solutions. I hope you don’t mind me asking a few questions.
The main issue we are having are the cellar walls. We have been scraping/cleaning/treating them for about a month now and still they are covered in paint in many areas. I see you have just painted your walls with masonry paint. Is this proving to be effective at keeping the damp out?
We have exposed the joists and are planning to insulate in between them. What products did you use?
We have bought tanking slurry for the floor which wer are aiming to cover and then use a self levelling screed with a cheap vinyl on top. Did you do anything with your floor?
Apologies for all the questions. Great project.
Regards
Matt Taylor
Thank you, Matthew! Essentially it sounds like you want to use your cellar the same way that we did.
For us, the floor was the biggest problem which is why we completely replaced it.
Our walls weren’t too bad. We scraped and scrubbed them clean and then painted them. The paint won’t keep out any moisture – it’s purely decorative.
Yes, we insulated between the joists. You can see what we did here. Just remember that any insulating you do has to comply with building regs.
As I just mentioned, we completely replaced the floor. We took up all old tiles, laid a damp proofing membrane and had a new concrete floor installed. You can see the post about removing the floor here and the post about our new concrete floor here.
Hope that’s some help.
Cx