Emulsion paint on cavity block walls

Uncle Pierre

Hi all. Long story short is that my garage has a couple of small separate rooms (about 10' x 8' each) at the back of it, and am thinking of converting one of them into a sort of "man cave" area.

The walls are just bare concrete block (cavity blocks). No sign of dampness or any other such problem on them. I've loads of ordinary magnolia emulsion paint left over from when we built the house. What's the worst that could happen if I just slap a couple of coats of this paint straight onto the walls?

It doesn't matter if it looks a bit rough. Am just aiming to brighten the place up a bit.

Markcheese

Go for it .. it'll soak up a good bit of paint ,so maybe water down the first coat ..

Uncle Pierre

Thanks. Tried a test run on a few blocks a few nights ago, and it takes a lot of paint all right. But I've got close to 40 litres of it, so should be okay......!

Fine Cheers

Spraying might be a better option to get paint into the tiny voids ? Fair faced block could take 4 or 5 coats but I guess the end use dictates the standard required.

Uncle Pierre

Thanks for the suggestion. A rough enough finish from a brush & roller will be fine in this particular case, though.

And to be honest, the more paint it needs, the better.....all those 10-litre tubs are among the items currently stored in that room, that I have to move on somehow!

Fine Cheers

Good stuff. Decent brushes only required !!