Painting breeze blocks...what next?

[Hard-Drive]

Yay! Finally a homeowner again. First job...sort the garage out! Joking aside, it's empty at the moment so now is the time to paint it, get the floor down, and sort the doors out too.

We've done three coats of Sandtex masonry paint onto the blockwork...it's been fairly diluted, and as expected the blocks have sucked up a lot of paint. It currently looks like this...what's the best next course of action?

A neat coat? Electric sprayer? Some PVA? Or is this really as good as I am going to get it. I'm leaning towards a neat coat, but pleased to take any advice!

Thanks!

[Hard-Drive]

[ChemicalChaos]

The simple but no doubt unwelcome answer is a lot of elbow grease!

When we painted our double garage, it took 2 of us a day to do the first and second coat, then me a day to do the 3rd coat solo. Each coat was laboriously stippled into all the pores with a big 6" floor paintbrush.
Yes, it was a hell of a lot of work, however, the end result is well worth it as the walls are a sealed, uniform bright gloss white and do not attract much, if any dust and dirt.
Don't be tempted to cheat and roller it, as you'll only cover the top surface and itll look a lot worse.

[Simpo Two]

Three coats of diluted seems a lot. I'd have done one dilute then two neat.

Or just skim the lot of course

[Lotobear]

Not a paint grade block so you it will always be hard work and involve many coats and much 'stippling'

[shouldbworking]

What are you painting with? 3 coats with a masonry roller was enough to make it just a little bit of stippling in a few awkward bits in my breeze block garage

[BurtonLazars]

Dulux blockfiller plus

[Andeh1]

Get the biggest builders bucket you can find.

Chuck in 20L odd of white paint, 2L ish water and use a big old 12"+ broom to scoop & brush up over the wall...rinse & repeat.

You'll probably only need one coat. Paint might be wasted, but will get a v thick coat, in one go. In one day.

Worked in two garages for me so far!

[mrpbailey]

I just did 3 neat coats in mine. First coat all soaked in very quick, and I could have left it after 2 coats to be honest but covered 100% after 3 coats.

[phumy]

I hope you took that Lotus outside before you painted the walls

[ChemicalChaos]

phumy said:

I hope you took that Lotus outside before you painted the walls

....and the Noble

[jymmm]

I've been doing the same thing using resincoat garage wall paint - https://www.resincoat.co.uk/en/home/520-resincoat-...

Hoping two coats will be enough, it doesn't really sucked into the block but still need lots of stippling

[alex.mcintosh]

I've just done mine. One coat of masonry diluted with 20% water then 1 top coat. Could do with 2nd but it's only a garage and still looks much better than before.....

[Hard-Drive]

Lotobear said:

Not a paint grade block so you it will always be hard work and involve many coats and much 'stippling'

^This, I think!

I tried a coat of brushed "neat" but I was going through paint at an alarming rate for not much return TBH. I gave up and went for another diluted rolled coat, and to be honest I think it will do for now.

On my previous house, I plasterboarded the garage and painted it light grey and it looked amazing. Of course, as soon as it had shelves hiding a lot of it, the inevitable dents/knocks, it started to look a bit crap...and if I ever put the Defender in there to work on, it always used to repaint areas "splatty exhaust carbon black" so I think I just need to remember it's a garage and be happy with a brighter white finish for dust/light purposes, rather than a perfect finish!

Thanks all!

[Flibble]

Spraying would be the low effort route, but if you're concerned about paint usage then maybe don't. You will smash through the paint in no time.