On Friday, January 5, 2018 at 3:44:06 PM UTC-5, gkryhewy wrote:
replying to Italian, gkryhewy wrote:
Are they neat little piles like someone poured sand in one place? Are they the
same color as the brick or are they lighter?
Old post, but google brought me to it when I was searching my issue. Since we
moved into our house 4 years ago, I've noticed this in the front of my
basement: 3 "neat little" piles of brick that come back over ~6 months after I
vacuum them away. Actually two are brick colored, and one is sand or sawdust
colored. They are about equidistant along the front wall. It's an old rowhouse
house (~100 years) that was massively renovated about 12 years ago and
extended backward significantly. Front half is brick under stucco, back half
is wood frame under stucco. The dust piles are only along the front facade,
and only in the basement. Attached is a photo of one of the piles; you can
see dust along the concrete wall there (which covers the front foundation
below grade); the dust is coming from above. Any thoughts on whether this is
something I should be concerned about, or other things to look for, would be
appreciated. The basement is always pretty dry since I installed a
dehumidifier a few years ago.
https://www.homeownershub.com/img/cr

I don't see any neat little piles. I see something distributed around
a bit. WE aren't there, I would think you could figure out if it's wood
or brick with some simple inspection or testing. When it's wet, what happens?
Does it burn? Smell like burning wood? If it's wood, I'd suspect insects.