Painting a cinder block breeze brick wall is a long laborious task; with aching back, arms and hands. Trying to get the paint worked into into the rough blocks, I kept thinking there has to be an easier way. There is! I used a shoe shine brush. It was so easy and quick.
Lather on the paint with a regular paint brush, a roller is too messy. Paint about two foot square at a time. Use the shoe brush to work the paint into the wall, the short bristles go into the holes in the blocks, saving the effort of going over and over the wall with a paint brush to fill up the gaps.
I hope this works as well for everyone else as it did for me.
Source: my own
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
I have a cinder block wall (1964) that surrounds my property on all 4 sides of house. It is the ugly pinkish color popular in the60s! What type of paint should be used? Will it require 2 coats? How long can I expect the paint to last; the blocks seem porous. Should paint be sprayed or rolled on? What about the effects of water from the sprinklers? Will the paint wash off easily? I know stucco would be way too expensive, so painting is the only option.
By judy from Riverside, CA
You'll need to remove as much of the old paint as possible, then seal with a sealer such as Kilz (the best I've found), then paint. Just be sure that if you use Kilz oil based sealer, you use oil based paint, the same if you use water based. Because if you use oil based Kilz and then water based paint - the paint won't adhere!
Just about all paint sold today is latex. I would remove any loose paint and use a paint sprayer. Rolling will not fill the voids that are in a cinder block. As the blocks are porous moisture may cause the paint to fail.
You could use a product called I believe Water Bloc from Home Depot for about $25 per gallon. It used to paint concrete. I used it to paint the concrete walls in my basement about 4 years ago and it has not peeled or let any moisture through. I used white but it may come in other colors or may be tinted. Forget the Kliz you don't need it.
Is this also the case for exterior walls? I mean the water bloc and kilz?