Just after some advice about cellars. A mate of mine has a cellar in an old house and we are trying to convert it to a man cave. Any idea of what the dos and donts are? We have found some cellar paint which is like a damp sealer but its 65 quid for five litres. The floor has red quarry tiles down which should clean up with a bit of elbow grease
pulls up chair, mine is an on going project so interested in people's views
check for damp.
if there's damp then you'd probably want to tank the place to stop all your man toys corroding without rigorous polishing on a regular basis.
How dry is it at the moment? being as we've had a fairly damp year so far, it should give you a good indication as to how damp it will get, if the existing brickwork/paint is damp but not wet then the paint might be enough to hold back any moisture, try putting a decent dehumidifier down there and see how much water it pulls, the next option would be tanking I guess, but think the floor would have to come up for that.
We had one at a previous house, that kind of paint, a small dehumidifier and a vent in the door at the top of the stairs meant I could keep bikes and gear down there no problem.... I did try not to take a wet/muddy bike into it
mine's damp as they come but is also well ventilated - the bikes don't corrode down there.
stop all your man toys corroding without rigorous polishing on a regular basis.
😆
*caught in a rather compromising position*
"no no, honestly, i [i]had[/i] to polish it, it was [i]corroding[/i]!"
10 years or very wet basements and no excessive corroding.
you do get mould on saddles and grips if left for a while mind...
Nick - gald it's not just me who gets that!
It's weird stuff.
Did my cellar up a year ago as it was really manky. Took the stone flags up as where some were missing we would get puddles. Ended up concreting with a dpm. The walls I dont think had been painted for decades so scraped all the loose crap off, pva'd it and just used a masonry paint on them. Whilst the wall gets damp where the old coal shute was the rest are fine. If i paint it again i'll just go over the stains with a stain block.
Make sure you've got some ventilation. I just put some drain pipe up through the blocked up chute to the outside.
Our cellar isn't damp as such, but if you put card on the floor, it becomes damp over a few weeks. Its just got a brick floor.
The other month i wire brushed off the old flaking paint and put a dehumidifier down ours for a week. Think it filled it once. Then used masonary paint. The cellar has a radiator in it, 3 air bricks open to the outside, and a window into the coal shute so plenty of ventilation.
Never had rust on my bikes and only one saddle gets a bit of mould but that takes 6 months to show (old ratty bike on rollers so not used during summer).