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water-damaged basement walls - help identify material

batpot

Member
Joined
Aug 24, 2010
Messages
7
Had a very wet winter, which lead to some water seepage, and some mold growth. I solved the seepage problem with an interior french drain.

Since it was dried out, I kind of ignored the mold spots for a while, but have been doing some reading recently, and finally decided that even dead mold leaves spores, and needs to be removed, so I got donned up in a mask, goggles, and tyvek, and started scraping, which lead to more scraping...and now I have no idea what I'm dealing with. The good news is the mold appears to be only in the outer most layer of paint.

There appears to be a sand-like material over the cinder block foundation. It's approximately 1/2" thick, and there is a ~1/16-1/18" thick later of cement-like material over the top of that. In the places where the mold was worst, the cement-like layer buldged a bit, and is now hollow underneath, making it easy to peel off, exposing the sand layer, and eventually the cinder block foundation.

See pictures here:
http://imgur.com/a/qnu6F

The speckled layer is the sand, and it has some speckles of translucent gold material. The whitish-gray underneath is the cinder block basement walls. The 2nd picture shows the thin cement-like layer over the sand.

Is this asbestos? What next steps should I take?
Since it is only buldged and loose in a few places, one course of action I had considered, is to just spackle it back up, and paint over it, but spackle does not adhere well to the sand-like layer.

Thanks for feedback.
 
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The Cobbler

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Oct 24, 2013
Messages
26,095
Location
Niagara Region, Ontario, Canada
it appears to be parging. may very well contain asbestos. the best solution would be to have it tested, but be prepared for an expensive remediation if it is.
if you paint the parging before you try to spackle, the spackle will adhere better, then you can paint the entire wall
 

scoot86

Active member
Joined
Nov 9, 2015
Messages
44
Make sure you spray any area with mold down with antimicrobial cleaner or even spray9 if you scrape or bother it dry you will spread mold spores throughout your house
 
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Cobra5150

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Location
GA
Don'tya just love the ads and pics that pop up???
imgCapture_zps6atnnii3.jpg
 
Last edited:

Boomer343

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 19, 2012
Messages
519
Reminds me of a product called Fiber Wall. It was mixed up with water and rolled on. A real **** product that didn't last long. Cellulose fibers and various additives.
 
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