My house is over 90 years old, and I am getting quite worried with the condition of the basement stone walls. I can literally rub my hand on the mortar, and it crumbles away. I am having the same problem with my brick chimney, only the section in the basement. The bricks themselves are slowly deteriorating. Could that be because the furnaces and hot water tanks are vented through the chimney? Not sure why the basement walls would be affected? Please advise?

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/h...ntWalls001.jpg
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Your best fix in my opinion is to wet the walls and scrub them let them dry and then apply a bonding agent then recement the walls followed by parging so that they are all smooth a lot of houses that were built back then do this because of poor maintnance

The stone wall just need to be regrouted and the mortor on the brick wall needs to be retuckpointed. As far the front of the brick you can have just the brick replaced. I recommend the this company that can do a great job in your basement. Their well know in st.louis city. Harambee Tuckpointing. They also do Free Estimates. I the you can find them on the web using the web stite. Www.restorestlouis.org/harambee