Basement Wall Advice....block wall

[scout308]

Here are some photos of exterior wall in my partially finished basement.

This is standard block, filled with concrete and some rebar. Its under the porch. Its painted with Killz when new. House is about 3 years old. On the other side is the dirt/front yard.

It got this way over time and hasnt obviously gotten worse.

Is this drying or moisture coming thru? Enough to worry about?? Thoughts?

Plan is for this to be safe room and have gun safe inside it. Have steel door between it and other room. Have had a dehumidifier in it since finished. It is set on 55% and rarely runs now. The room has central ac/heat run to it but it stays 62-65 year round in the basement without ac or heat running, so I mainly leave the system fan running to keep air moving.

Any suggestions for prep before putting up cabinets or shelving that may cover the wall? Drilling and screwing into it?? I would like to mount cabinets and some slat wall, so that would require some studs or something to mount to wall, insulate in between? moisture barrier? any advice?? Thanks in advance!

 

[darkk]

If you're worried about possible moisture, there are several moisture/water barrier products available to paint on the block.

 

[jkeyser14]

If you're worried about possible moisture, there are several moisture/water barrier products available to paint on the block.

The paint on products need to be applied to bare block. Since it's already painted he would have to strip it all - talk about nightmare. My first step would be to look outside and see if you can change downspouts, grading, or something else to get rid of the problem.

 

[brownbagg]

that water coming through the walls, you going have to waterproof from the outside and its going be a *****

 

[crawler07]

man,I thought my wife posted that pic of our basement it looks exatly like that. let me tell you my story, we moved into our house and the basement looked like it had just been painted with some kind of drylok type paint with some sort of grit in it. after a couple of years it started to look just like what you have going on in those pis. So we started asking people what the deal was and no one could give us much info. So we did a **** ton of enterweb work till we came up with this. The flaking stuff seems to be a thing called salt that is in the ground water that is up against the outside block and as it dries out it leaves behind the salt like residue. kinda like a baseball cap does after you sweat in it it will leave a salt ring on the outside. So I went to the local hardware store and and they said here use this stuff and follow the directions to the T. so I bought some kind of pore penitrating block paint. it said to remove all existing paint so I did that with a wire brush and some sufuric asid just like the directions said. I did it for about 3hrs per day for about 1 week straight till it was perfect. than it said to paint the product on with a brush and do at least 3 coats so I did that and I have to say it looked awesome !!!!!!!.......for about 8 months and then it came back what a pain in the ****!!! Yea the product came with a gaurantee (free replacement of paint), but what good does that do me after I waisted 21 hrs cleaning and painting this **** on....It was the best I could find and I did alot of google searches on the subject..so what im saying is dont go this route. Go out in the yard and look around see if their is a way to build up some earth around the foundation and slope it away from the house or install a french drain it will be well worth the effort. If you do build a french drain make sure you use a sock on the corrigated pipe.

 

[kbs2244]

How are your downspouts routed?
I would start with routing them to at least 10 feet away from th house.