What is this material on the wall?

[Scoot63]

Started taking down wallpaper and found the following underneath, a greenish slightly patterned fabric attached to some light plaster that has then come off the brick wall and came down in cm-sized pieces. Does anyone know what this is and why it was built this way?
/Henrik

 

[BirgitS]

Could be a fiberglass fabric used to reinforce and smooth the plaster so it wouldn't collapse and to provide a good surface for wallpapering. Similar to how renovation wallpaper is used today. It might still be there.

 

[O]

Started taking down wallpaper

When you remove the wallpaper, naturally what is underneath will be revealed.
Curious. Why would one care so much about what is behind the wallpaper that they remove it and check?

 

[Scoot63]

If you remove the wallpaper, naturally what's underneath will appear.
Curious. Why do people care so much about what's behind the wallpaper that they take it off to see?

The wallpaper was loosely attached to the wall, I initially thought about just filling in the textured wallpaper but in some places, it was bulging. At first, I thought the wallpaper had come loose from the plaster, but it was the plaster that had come off from the brick.

 

[Scoot63]

It could be a fiberglass mesh used to reinforce and smooth out the plaster so that it wouldn't fall apart and would provide a good base for wallpapering. Similar to how renovation wallpaper is used today. It might still be there.

Thanks, that sounds very reasonable. It's not quite a mesh, but it's tough and fairly strong and the "weave pattern" is embossed. I also think it's waterproof. In some places, it's adhered, but in others, the plaster has come off, and where it's been drilled, there are large holes of missing material around the plug because it has crumbled. I think I need to remove everything where the plaster has come off the wall and apply new plaster plus fiber fabric. The wall is going to be painted.