Painting Basement Concrete Floor...Safety Question
ADenis
I am thinking of painting my basement floor... (concrete) I would like to use the same paint that
we use at work on our assembly plant floor because it seems very durable.
My question is...Is it safe to paint the floor at this time of the year? The furnace and gas water
heater are running all the time now and I was wondering if there could be a safety concern with
igniting paint fumes.
This is the type of paint. Benjamin Moore & Co. Dulamel - Semi Gloss Alkyd Enamel (Low Odour)
My gut feeling is that as long as I open some windows downstairs to ventilate the fumes, there
should be no problem. Any comments?
Thanks in advance.
Andre
ade...@idirect.com
"Man is a tool-using animal, without tools, he is nothing, with tools he is all"
--Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881)
Gerald Levine
I sincerely hope the fellow that was checking for gas leaks with a match
doesn't answer you.
ADenis <ade...@idirect.com> wrote in article
<3477161b...@usenet.idirect.com>...
JBOBST
Put a small fan in the window, too, and maybe do the job in several stages a
day or so apart. Try for cross ventilation if it doesn't get too cold. After
most of the solvent has flashed off, it should be OK to close things up, say in
an hour or so.
JBO...@AOL.COM
Robert Cadieux
ADenis wrote:
>
> I am thinking of painting my basement floor... (concrete) I would like to use the same paint that
> we use at work on our assembly plant floor because it seems very durable.
>
> My question is...Is it safe to paint the floor at this time of the year? The furnace and gas water
> heater are running all the time now and I was wondering if there could be a safety concern with
> igniting paint fumes.
>
> This is the type of paint. Benjamin Moore & Co. Dulamel - Semi Gloss Alkyd Enamel (Low Odour)
>
> My gut feeling is that as long as I open some windows downstairs to ventilate the fumes, there
> should be no problem. Any comments?
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> Andre
> ade...@idirect.com
> "Man is a tool-using animal, without tools, he is nothing, with tools he is all"
> --Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881)
Every solvent or solvent mixture has what is called a lower and upper
explosivity limit. This is the concentration range in % that will
permit a flame to propagate through the mixture. Outside this range the
flame sputters. Just like the air/fuel mixture in your car, too lean or
too rich and it won't burn. The lower limit is the one to be concerned
with. If you ever get anywhere past the upper limit you probably have
already applied several inches thickness of paint and should stop ;).
The lower limit is usually around 1%-2% but varies with each paint. You
can call Benjamin Moore and ask for this info. Low odour usually means
the product is a stoddard solvent base which is somewhat more difficult
to ignite and therefore less risky. You can and should use fans to
disperse the fumes and prevent local accumulation. Extract as much of
the fumes as possible by using the kitchen and bathroom fans to pull air
out of the house and replace it by opening the basement windows. The
fans will pull the fresh air in to the house through the basement
windows. The downside being that the fumes will travel through the
house as well. Another good trick would be to run you furnace
ventilator (fan) full time and replace the furnace filter with one that
contains charcoal (odour control). This filter will absorb the solvent
fumes and slowly remove the fumes with each pass.
Hope this helps.
Robert Cadieux
Chemist
Michael Weitman
There is an article in this month's Family Handyman about staining concrete, but speaking from
experience, I recently dry-loc'ed my basement floor (part for my shop, the other part will be covered by
carpet & padding in the finished area. I'm sure there are many other types and brands, but dry-loc did
the trick.
The first coat was applied according to directions, watered down (it's latex based) with a brush, the
second coat applied straight. Durable is the word, while during pluming, I leaked water on the floor,
rather than soaking in, it puddled and stayed until I got around to wiping it up.
Sliding my mitre saw (metal stand) across the floor, twisting it, etc. didn't harm the finish at all,
and I was quick at applying it.
I did feel a bit 'funny' painting beneath my gas fired water heater, but the label clearly states that
dry-loc is not flamable, nor is there any warnings about combustion.
Hope this helps...