It’s serious business when you have a home with water leaks in the basement. Although the leaks seem small, the problem can easily escalate to the point where it undermines your foundation and spews mold spores throughout your home. Water leaks are one of those problems that you don’t want to leave untreated thinking that they aren’t going to get any worse, because they will. And even if you’re thinking that this article has nothing to do with you because your basement doesn’t leak, keep in mind that any house can leak if the conditions are right. Knowing about basement waterproofing paint options may well come in handy sometime when you least expect it.

As a matter of fact, the ideal time to coat your foundation walls with waterproofing paint is before they leak at all. Once water gets inside the walls, their condition can deteriorate until they leak so badly that a more serious, and expensive, type of fix will be necessary. All concrete and stone have minute pores and cracks which water can leak through. Wet soil pressing against your foundation can begin to force water into these openings which then become larger. By painting the walls early on, you can stop some of the seepage that is going to cause greater wall damage over time.

It’s important that when you go to waterproof your walls, you buy a high-quality waterproofing paint. You also want to buy enough paint to cover the walls as thickly as the manufacturer recommends. This is not a time to try and cut corners, because cheap paints just aren’t going to provide the protection your walls need. By going to a store that sells nothing but painting supplies, you should be able to get the help you need to select the best paint for your needs. The personnel in these stores are more likely to have knowledge of their products than the employees of the big home improvement stores do.

There is a little prep work you need to do before you start painting the walls. You will need to make sure they are relatively clean and free of debris and peeling paint. Brushing them down with a wire brush should take care of the problem and leave a surface which the basement waterproofing paint will adhere tightly to.

So now that you have your supplies and have prepared your wall, it’s time to get started protecting your foundation from water damage.