After removing/cleaning up old carpet in a basement, should I paint over the cement before laying new carpet?

Question

Also, I may want to tile some of the area. Should I NOT paint the area I plan to tile?

Answer 1

Don't paint especially where the tile will be laid.  The mortar has to adhere to the concrete.  Painting put a barrier and it may not hold as well as bare concrete.....

Answer 2

No painting in the are to be tiled.  However, you might want to see just how much moisture is passing thru your concrete slab.  You do this by taping pieces of 4" square aluminum foil to the floor in several spots in the basement.  Tape all 4 sides and leave for 2-3 days.  When you remove the foil and you find moisture on the underside of the foil, then you have considerable moisture coming thru.  If you were to find moisture that collected on the top(exposed) side of the foil, then you have too much humidity in the basement and might want to look to solve this problem.  Under any carpet, painting would be fine.  If you just want to seal the concrete to slow the moisture transfer, go to www.ugl.com/drylok/concreteprotector...

Answer 3

there is no reason to paint before carpet or tile. if you have dampness issues, that's another story. there are sealers designed to help with that but, they only do so much. good luck!

Answer 4

Tiling the area should be fine- no need to paint first.  

You have many options of tiles....

see   http://www.building-your-green-home.com/...

As far as carpeting goes, unless you are positive your basement has no moisture problems at all, carpeting may bring you many headaches.  And not only headaches from the moisture.  See the following page on carpeting - some of it has numerous health issues associated with it....

http://www.building-your-green-home.com/...

You have so many flooring options for a basement.  See the following web page for a quick-click flooring guide (branching off to 15 different pages on flooring options)..

http://www.building-your-green-home.com/...

Hope this helps!