With the prices of home renovation services sky rocketing, more and more people are looking to take a do it yourself based approach to various tasks around the home to help keep their costs down. Over the last month or two, we have noticed people reaching out to ask if they should paint the foundation to their house or not.
Due to seeing a steady increase in the number of people reaching out about painting their foundation as well as the price of masonry paint falling over the last year, we have decided to publish this article. We hope that it will be able to explain the advantages of painting the foundation of your home, the type of paint that you should be using, and how you actually go about painting your foundation.
Although this may sound like a large amount of work, painting and decorating services can be extremely expensive depending on the area that you live in so painting your own foundation can be a great, cheap option. Although it will require you to put the hours in to get the job done, it can end up saving you hundreds or potentially thousands of dollars!
Is It Ok To Paint Your Foundation?
It is generally ok for you to paint the foundation of your home and painting your foundation actually offers you a number of benefits over not painting it. In addition to potentially improving the ascetic look of your home, decent masonry paints will also help to prevent moisture from causing issues with your foundation too.
That said though, in the vast majority of situations, painting the foundation of your home is optional and not an essential process. Although a small number of home owner associations will have it in their regulations that you have to have visible parts of your foundation painted, for the most part, you can save the time and money just leaving it as it is.
Depending on the over all look of your home, garden, and yard, painting your foundation really can help to bring everything together and complete the look. Depending if you have a large amount of the foundation visible to the outside, this relatively simple step can help to increase the chances of finding a buyer when trying to sell your home as it gives the property a more complete feel.
Should I Paint My Foundation?
Unless you are a part of a home owner association that specifically requires you to paint your home foundation, the choose is usually up to you but more and more people are starting to paint the foundation of their home. Although this is partly due to a “keeping up with the joneses” effect of wanting to match your neighbours home, the advancements in modern masonry paint formulas have helped to offer you additional benefits.
The main one is helping to prevent moisture being able to seem into the wood or concrete foundation of your home and potentially cause issues over the years. These potential issues usually range from cracks developing due to water freezing during the colder months to mold starting to grow.
When you consider the potential prices of having some of these issues fixed, the price and time required to paint the foundation of your home usually seems much more economical in addition to the visual appeal of going through the process. Please note though, depending on your area, the risk of these issues occurring may be minimal so do you research for your local area.
Should I Stain My Foundation
Although many people do stain a woof foundation, we usually recommend that our readers take the painting route due to an actual paint offering better protection than the majority of stain products currently on the market. If you know you live in an area with minimal mold risk and have a wood foundation then you can stain it if you like though.
Many people do prefer the stained wood look over the painted wood look and the look of the rest of your property may also look better if you stain your wood instead of paint it. Due to masonry stain being at a similar price point to masonry paint, the financial difference between the two is minimal.
Although some people have tried to stain a concrete foundation, it almost always fails and looks bad due to masonry staining products usually being designed for use with wood. If you do have a concrete foundation we would recommend against trying to stain it as there are no products on the market at the time of writing that we are aware of that can give a good, authentic look to concrete.
What Color Should I Paint The Foundation Of My House?
A very small number of home owner associations will specify the color that you have to paint the foundation of your home with it usually being a shade of grey or white. If you live in an area without a home owner association or have a home owner association that has no rules relating to the foundation of your home, you are usually able to use any color that you can find a suitable paint for.
That said though, even the better masonry paint options on the market do tend to have limited color options due to the market simply not being there. The vast majority of people tend to choose a grey or white but there are a small number of other colors available.
There are some very limited options where you can add your own pigment color to a white masonry paint to customise the color but the majority of the time, this tends to be more hassle than it is actually worth. With grey being such a simple and popular option, we would guess that a large chunk of our readers would be leaning towards using grey paint for their foundation anyway.
How Do You Paint The Foundation Of Your Home?
The most common problem that we see time and time again when it comes to actually painting the foundation of your home is that people fail to correctly clean the foundation prior to applying their paint. Even simple stuff like a simple wash down to remove any dirt build up is often overlooked but can easily cause even expensive masonry paints to peel.
The first step should always be to give the foundation of your home a quick wash down, even giving it the once over with the garden hose is usually enough. Next up, do a quick visual inspection for any potential issues such as cracks, mould or insect infestations and deal with each as required.
Although it is not essential if you are using a decent masonry paint, some people do usually like to put a suitable paint primer on their foundation prior to applying their paint for a better end result. If you are using any other type of paint that has not specifically been designed for use with foundations then it is usually a good idea to look into using a paint primer or switching over to using a masonry paint.
If you do choose to use a paint primer, paint it onto your foundation and then follow the instructions on the label of your primer. Some products will dry very quickly allowing you to apply your paint over the top with in the day but others can take longer to dry. If you are using a paint primer that takes a few days to dry or longer, checking the local wether prior to applying it is probably a good idea to avoid issues with wind and rain.
Once your primer has dried you are usually able to apply your primary paint option to your homes foundation. Although it is not essential, some people do like to do a small test area of their foundation to let their paint dry to check the final color to see if they are happy with how it looks with the rest of their house.
Once you have completed the painting of your foundation you should always leave it to dry. Depending on your location, you may be able to leave it as is but if you live in an area with heavy wind and rain, some people may want to look into using a sealing agent on top of their paint to protect it from the elements.
Conclusion
That brings our article going over if you should paint your homes foundation to a close. Due to the rapidly increasing painting and decorating charges, we can definitely see why so many people are looking to switch over to simply painting their own foundations. Thankfully, the process tends to be much easier than the majority of people initially think allowing you to get the job done yourself for cheap without running into any major difficulties.
