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You should never rush when cleaning concrete walls. Why You Should Pre-Clean Your Basement Walls This video explains how you can minimize humidity in your basement and garage: Therefore, keeping humidity levels low is one of the sure-fire ways of avoiding this problem. When the salt expands, they increase these spaces, causing the concrete to break and flake away. If the water carries salt, it may fill the spaces between concrete particles. Just like some other stains, spalling results when water penetrates your wall. If you fail to do that, you may have to replace the entire concrete wall. However, spalling is a more serious problem that you must address immediately. Spalling occurs when the concrete in your basement wall begins to crumble, while also causing flaking and chipping. They’ll most likely cause a mess that will be costly to remedy, as it can get expensive or labor-intensive to scrape, sand, and power wash your walls because of chipping and flaking.īut there are ways to paint on concrete and make it last. Therefore, you probably don’t want to apply any paint or sealant to your basement wall. The outcome is the caving in the coatings, which creates a mess as the paint chips fall all over your basement’s floor. However, as water infiltrates your walls, pressure tends to build up under these coatings. You also might want to spruce your walls up. When building basement walls, you might be tempted to cover the concrete walls and make them water-resistant and airproof by using coatings, such as sealants, hydraulic cement, and paints. To keep mold at bay, you need to control one of the factors that promote their growth, including keeping your basement’s humidity lower than 60%. It also indicates there’s organic matter in your walls since mold mostly feeds on them. Mold develops in highly humid, warm environments.
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If you’ve spotted dark black or grey stains on your walls, chances are high that you have a mold problem to deal with. You can remove these stains from concrete walls using this non-toxic, effective Singerman Laboratories Rust Remover for Concrete from Amazon. Also, ridding your surfaces of iron ochre can be a hassle since it stains almost everything, including plastic and carpeting. Read more: Rust Stains on Concrete: Causes, prevention, and repair infoĪlthough iron ochre is harmless to your health, it can build up in your waterworks systems and cause clogging. The ochre is carried by the groundwater that seeps into your basement walls. Your concrete walls are highly likely to get infiltrated by iron ochre if you live in an area with high iron content in the soil. Reddish/orange stains are a telltale sign of rust. This video provides more information on basement efflorescence: If unchecked, high-level humidity might cause severe problems, including the growth of mold in your basement.Įfflorescence can be removed using Eco-Etch Pro Concrete Etcher & Cleaner (link to Amazon), which is a 100% biodegradable, non-toxic, and VOC-free product with a good reputation. However, it’s a sign of highly humid concrete, a problem that you must address immediately. Have you ever seen a concrete wall that has turned white, with a powdery substance developing on the wall? The substance is called efflorescence, which is a loose mineral salt that’s deposited by groundwater that infiltrates concrete surfaces.Īlthough it’s unsightly, it shouldn’t be cause for alarm, as efflorescence is harmless. Here are some wall-stains you’re highly likely to encounter on your basement concrete: A White Powdery Substance Called Efflorescence Using the wrong cleaning products to clear a specific stain can cause more problems, including unnecessary health risks. You’ll need to recognize the common basement wall-stains so that you can deal with them appropriately.
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Engineers often rely on adequate foundation drainage to prevent the problem, but if the soil surrounding the walls isn’t sufficiently dry, wall stain becomes a recurrent problem. It can cause respiratory illnesses and make your air quality poor.Īlthough not all stains are mold, most of them point to the infiltration of your concrete walls by groundwater. Conclusion The Most Common Basement Wall Stainsīasement wall-stains are not just an eyesore as they may also contain mold or mildew, which impacts air quality and the health of you and your family.Clean a Concrete Wall With a Pressure Washer.Use a Combination of Lemon Juice and Vinegar.Use Hydrochloric Acid To Remove Rust Stains.Kill Mold on Non-Porous Surfaces With Bleach.Why You Should Pre-Clean Your Basement Walls.A White Powdery Substance Called Efflorescence.