Anyone able to identify what this is in my wall?

[iwonder24]

Internal wall between bedroom and bathroom. I thought the walls were all lath and plaster and then bricks but on pulling off the architrave around the door I can see a think layer of pasted and then this wobbly cementy looking type thing. Can't work out if it's just the bricks or if it's something else built into the construction of the wall. Anyway here's a pic...

Oh and it's a 30s house

That should obviously say think layer of PLASTER

Looks like someone has just done a quick cement job when bits of plaster were falling off???

Where in the country are you?
I heard about houses on the south coast which were quickly built. They would just build the wall out of rubble and plaster over it!
I'm sure someone who knows better will be along soon.

I'm in the midlands.

I can't really tell what's going on there, but I'm in a 30s house too, and I have a layer or two of plaster (from previous owners who just skimmed what was there previously), and below that I have brick mainly, but often what looks like just bits of whatever was lying around (I swear there was some flint in there, and some bits are a bugger to drill into)

That's interesting to know!

Bump

I can't see the scale. A hand or a 50p piece in the pic is good for showing the size. Also stand back to show us where we are looking.

The light brown plaster is probably modern patching, if you have other plaster that is paler.

The vertical thing in your pic looks like it has a vertical grain in it, is it a piece of wood?

From your description it is most likely a non-loadbearing partition wall. In the 1930s they were often built on floorboards with nothing in particular underneath them (so you have to be careful cutting floorboards beside them, e.g. for plumbing or wiring) and so quite likely to be a stud and plaster, or a breeze-block wall. Sometimes timber frame with odd brick and rubble infill.

Ah sorry for rubbish picture. The bit to the right is the door frame under where the old architrave has come off. To the right is the wall. The plaster is about an inch thick and then the bit I'm wondering about is the bit right in the middle which looks like some sort of cement sheet which has a wobbly/wavy top to it. The hole revealing this is about the size of two 50p pieces. I'm unable to see how much of that cement looking stuff there is - basically just hoping Its nothing sinister (ie asbestos!) as, although that wall is remaining in situe, others have been knocked down!

I can't see a cement sheet. Are you sure you aren't looking at timber laths?

Is it the dark grey stuff in the middle of the picture that looks a bit like a chocolate bar? It looks like a bit of garden decorative edging brick or something.

Yes that's right the dark grey bit. Potentially could be timber laths. The picture is awful and unfortunately I'm not there to retake, plus it's probably covered up by now.

search for photos of lath and plaster. Or, when next there, climb into the loft and photograph the upper surface of the ceilings.

It does not look like asbestos.

We've had a closer look and it crumbles - there are no laths so my dad (who I sent round to check) says it's a bonding layer of plaster. The ceilings are definitely lath and plaster but walls seem to be this plaster onto brick. Are you familiar with this PigletJohn? (I note from other threads that you are very knowledgable!)

there were some quite rare bricks or blocks with a grooved face intended to give a good grip to plaster or render. Faint chance it might be them.

I don't think we can tell from the picture.

Lime plaster is a creamy or greyish white, and coarser than gypsum plaster. Might be that.

If it is thin galvanised steel (grey or rusted), nailed to that wooden stud, it might be some kind of plasterer's lathing, but that is usually mesh or expanded metal with a solid rib.