new member. what is on my basement walls??

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BigRedChevy11

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Hello to all. I bought my first home a few months ago and i havent stopped improving since. So far half the basement I have cleaned and dryloked (awesome stuff) and wow what a difference in moisture. The other side of the basement tho has like a green fiber like mortar on it that I cant figure out. Is it an old school moisture thing?( house built in early 50's) do I need to tear it down for drylok or do I need to drylok at all?

Thanks!
 
I don't know exactly what it is but it looks some sort of stucco finish.
 
Its not quite like stucco. Very brittle if I scratch at it it falls off and makes a mess. From what I can tell there is no mesh or other substrate either.
 
It is some sort of parging/stucco type surface treatment to make the wall look finished. If it is old enough it could even contain asbestos. No way to know for sure unless you can identify exactly what it is or have it tested.
 
How heavy is it? Or how dense is it? Is a chunk of this stuff comparable in weight to the same size chunk of cement? There must be several ways to compare it to other things just to get a feel for it. There is not much here for us to go on, except for your words and pictures. Soft or hard? cement-like or plastic-like? etc.
 
If I touch it straight on it is hard and rough. When I pinch a corner or edge it breaks off and crumbles in my fingers. I would say about at strong as drywall without the paper but it feels more like a stone or plaster. When I pinch it it does not compress at all. It breaks into many many tiny pieces.

Hope this helps. When we bought the house it was inspected for asbestos and they never bat an eye at it.
 
When we bought the house the guy that flipped it said it had drywall overtop and he removed it because it was falling apart. He told me he thought it was old method of a vapor barrier but this is coming from the same guy that ran my gutters uphill...
 
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