Boiler room walls are starting to collapse..

[Stina71]

What do you do when it looks like this in the old boiler room?

Mortar and plaster on old "reed mat" are coming loose or about to come loose. Can a mason reinforce/fill with new mortar to bind together what is about to fall, and where it has already fallen off? Or, do you have to first knock off everything that's loose?

I hope there is some technique/material that can be used without having to knock down everything that's loose first. Grateful for tips!

And, is there a risk that there is asbestos mixed in with this type of mortar/plaster?

Thank you in advance!

 

[bonnier]

I doubt there's any asbestos in that. Do you have moisture in the boiler room? A damp environment usually causes plastered walls to peel, but I don't think it looks particularly damp in the photos. The work with pipes, etc., doesn't look particularly old, maybe it's the aftermath of the installation, where they might have been a bit rough. You can probably plaster it yourself, depending on how nice you want it to look, of course.

 

[Stina71]

No idea if I have moisture in the boiler room...
Previously used pellets for heating, but now switched to ground source heat.
In connection with that, when I disconnected the boiler and stopped using it, I had a radiator installed in the boiler room.
However, the wall where you see the "reed mat" completely exposed (image 1) was already exposed before that.
Meanwhile, the installation of water pipes and ground source heating pipes likely damaged the other wall, image number 2.

If I'm going to plaster the walls, do I first need to knock away everything that's loose, or can it adhere anyway?
I'd prefer to avoid knocking out and creating a lot of dust, both because of the dust itself and especially if it might contain asbestos.
I know that in the past they could mix asbestos in plaster/mortar because it had reinforcing properties.
But, as I said, no idea if there's asbestos in these walls.

Thanks for the reply Bonnier!
Any additional thoughts on this?

 

[Stina71]

By the way Bonnier, do you think I can "demand" that the craftsman who installed the geothermal heating should fix the wall they obviously damaged when installing the pipes for the geothermal heating? Image 2.
Can it be considered a complaint?

 

[bonnier]

I'm unfortunately probably not the right person to answer the technicalities, I am anything but a plaster expert
Personally, I wouldn't demand that the craftsman fix the wall, I can imagine it's not entirely easy to make holes neatly in such a wall. If it were my boiler room, I would buy a cheap hygrometer (moisture meter) to monitor the humidity, and perhaps then decide if a dehumidifier is needed, and if the condition of the wall bothered me too much, I would buy some plaster at the hardware store and apply it myself...