My home was built in the 1930's and is 2x4 stick frame.
There are parts on the outside of the exposed foundation that have crumbled off, in spots about a half inch deep exposing the aggregate.

In the basement, there is a an area that does the same. It is below where the porch is located on the other side of the wall. This the porch is not covered, and in Winter when the snow melts or when heavy rain, a little of the water sweats or drips down/through this wall.

In other areas, I can see a white powdery residue (calcium?) around walls that had something that was agains them for years.

What mostly is coming off the walls is sand and very small aggregate, this stopped at the half inch depth in the area that it was occuring.

Is there an easy fix for this? Can I just cover with something and forget it, or is this something major?

Thanks,

Rick

If the basement walls area poured cement, not a big worry. Its not uncommon to find some spalling on the surface of older cement. The materials used back then were not of the same quality and types we use today. You simply need to clean real well and re-parge the surface with cement.
The white powder your seeing called efflorescence is the result of moisture entering through the cement walls from the outside. The moisture is leaching the salts in the cement and depositing them on the surface where the moisture evaporates leaving the white powder behind.

What is causing this is a failing water proofing system on the outside of the house. The ONLY correct way of fixing this is to dig to the footing and sealing the cleaned off cement walls with a thick coat of asphalt tar and plastic. Plus a whole host of other drain pipes etc. See other posts on how this is done.

Sealing the inside with water proofing paint will only stop the moisture for a short while until the interior surface fails and crumbles inside. By then there is much more damage done.

But fixing the spalling is easy, its just the work to prevent it from occurring that is labor intensive.