I'm renovating the laundry room in the basement of a villa built in '33. When I removed the plaster and cement mortar from the wall, I discovered that there is reinforcement extending from the floor (I'm not sure how far out into the floor) a bit up along the basement wall. This recurs at regular intervals, about 80 cm between the reinforcement bars (thick as a pinky finger). It is an outer wall made of lightweight concrete, no other walls have had a similar construction.
I've tried to illustrate this with a picture. The red line is the reinforcement bar.
There used to be an oil tank in the room before, but it has been removed. Does anyone know what purpose the reinforcement bars might serve? Was it to increase the load-bearing capacity of the floor? I'd prefer to cut them; otherwise, I'll need to plaster the walls very thickly.
