Painting basement flooring and walls

[Matt Holmer]

CLIFF NOTES:  What is the best/cost effective paint for concrete basement flooring in rental?

Hello All-

For an unfinished basement in a rental property, I've seen a lot of recommendations to paint the walls white and flooring gray.  This brightens up the area and makes it slightly more welcoming.  My question is, what type of paint is everyone using?

For the walls, it is pretty straight forward.  Either a dry-lok type product if moisture is an issue or regular paint suitable for concrete.

The flooring is something I am running into problems with.  I've seen products specifically for concrete floors (1 or 2 part epoxy) at the big box stores.  However, they seem to get poor reviews, are expensive, and I'm not sure how well they would do with moisture.  Is there something better?

Thank you for the time!

[Roy N.]

@Matt Holmer

We use the commercial grade concrete paint that you would see in auto-repair garages, warehouses, etc.  It comes in 5usg buckets and is not terribly expensive.  You need to clean the concrete well before you start, but it goes on fairly easily with either a roller or paint sprayer (you will want a pro-grade sprayer with the correct nozzle for the heavier paint).