Hello all

Looking for advice on a project at the mother ship (my house). I have an above grade laundry /storage room in the basement that needs some help. I plan on replacing the 25+ W/D before the washer rusts totally out (its leaving me little mementos in every 3rd wash). The old owners did vinyl P/S tiles on the floor but when you have a crappy clogged drain in the sink, well lets say they peeled off the floor. We have long since redone the utility sink drain years ago so no issues there.

My dilemma is the walls. I have a poured concrete foundation and one wall is the concrete and the other wall that separates the house from the garage is cinder block. We just snatched off some of the most horrendous paneling that was attached with furrowing strips on the concrete wall and as much as we can on the other wall until we move the W/D. This room has no leaks or moisture issues whatsoever and none of the walls have ever been painted. The W/D was on the cinderblock wall with all the pipes etc. My plumber is redoing the pipes + upgrading the gas line to the dryer.

I would like to paint the walls something uniform once I get everything out. What is the best way to paint the walls on both sides (concrete and cinder block) for this room? It is a relatively small room but I don't know if I need to etch it at all first, use tinted drylock, just masonry paint etc. I don't care about the imperfections in the walls (i.e. not looking for smoothness) I just wanted to add a little color to the walls.

Also would Allure grip strip type be ok in this type of room? If so can I put it over the bare concrete floor or would I need to do something to the floor? Right outside of the room we have Armstrong 18 x 18 P/S tiles leading into the man cave (this area is at the bottom of the stairs and goes towards the garage as well as the laundry room). For that we used a self leveler first and then laid the tiles since that area previously was carpeted and the floor wasn't flat (carpet remnants that would not come off). Didn't know if we needed to do that as well for this room regardless of Allure or Armstrong.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated! Thanks