I love this forum because you all have older homes like me and provide me great advice.

My house is over 100+ years - row home like most of you. The walls in the basement seem to be "crumbling" or "chipping". The walls look like they were "stucco-ed" years back and are starting to break off the main wall leaving this white/red residue on the floor, etc. The crumbling is inconsistent - in various spots along the walls.

Has anyone ever experienced this before? Can someone recommend a contractor, etc that I could have come and give me an appraisal?

Thanks

It's the small amount of water getting through causing the stucco to flake off. The stucco really only has a shelf life of about 100 years anyway, add humid air and it may go faster.

DIY process is to scrape off the loose stuff with a wire brush, don't go to town, just get the loose stuff off. Go to MAB/Sherwin Williams and get a hydraulic paint for masonry. The paint actually expands into the cracks and bonds to the stone. Follow the directions on the can. Buy a big cheap brush, it wont last this job and you'll need twice as much paint as you think.

If you hired me, depending on the flaking, I would scrap most if not all the mortar off the wall and hall it away. Then I would re-parge the walls to a smooth finish.

DIY cost, about $400 in paint and tools.
My cost, about $4000 for labor, materials, dump fees etc...

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It's called "parging." A wire brush works, or you can do a little light hammering / scraping in the worst areas.

Do a search on parge or parging on this site and you'll get some good info like:

http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/sou...parging-2.html

Great info!

So, the exposed brick in our bedroom is starting to crumble/deteriorate a little... looks like the "soft" stuff under the glazing (as referenced in the "Never sand blast..." thread) is turning white and dusty on a few of the bricks.

It looks like the previous owners put some type of clear sealant on the entire wall it to preserve the brick, as most of it is in good shape, just a few bricks that have started to break down, and crumble into an red/ashy dust on the floor. It also looks like there are other parts of the wall where there is larger sections of mortar (more than just between the bricks) where I am guessing this has already occurred in the past.

Would a delicate scraping and some more mortar do the trick?

Kinda what the previous poster said? "re-parge" I think.

Feel free to view my website. Im sure i can help you Kaylincontractors.com

Party wall brick is called salmon brick and was never meant to be exposed. Same for the joinery. Salmon brick was the cheapest brick available. Its structurally sound but does not have that hard glaze associated with exposed brick. The joinery used in party wall construction will deteriorate when exposed to air.

My basement walls are made up of the older fieldstone and ive fixed the flaking by chipping off all the decayed stucco to expose the stones.

I then applied a masonry adhesive to the stones....let it dry then cut sheets of metal lathe and applied the over the exposed stonework.

I then used regular old masonry mortar and filled in over the mesh....sometimes I had to force it through a couple of times but in the end it held up nicely.

I did the entire basement and all that is left is to paint the walls.....the new mortar has varying colors in it.....light/dark greys....so im painting it all white.

Some people might not want to do the work themselves.....but im an avid DIYer.

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You are miss informed phillyrbh. Salmon brick has nothing to do with party walls, also the "joinery" is fine. If you have any masonry questions, there are plenty of masons of GC's that can help you out. This info is wrong.

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