A few questions

[wellymeister]

Hello all,
Been lurking for a while, now time to say hi.

I have a small room which i'm sorting out. It's in a mess.
It's an old councill house built 30/40's. After removing all sorts of crap off the walls im back to the original plaster.
I have started to remove all the loose bits of blown plaster.

My questions are:
1, Whats the black mix thats about an inch thick. striaght on top of the breeze blocks.
2, Whats the white/grey gritty mix on top of the above.
3, Would bonding or hardwall be best to fill the holes (some are pretty deep, back to the breeze block)
4, Whats the best course of action over the rest. Pva and skim or a coat of hardwall.


General condition of the wall

One of the bigger holes

I have searched through the forum but can't find the right answers.

Thanks
Paul

 

[wellymeister]

Doesn't actually matter too much now cos by the time all blown bits were removed it looked like this

But for reference what is it? It looks like coal?

 

[vv2806]

My bathroom looks the same, I was told it is a black mortar.