We just bought a house (built in the 50s) and want to redo part of the basement rec room which was built in 1970. After pulling off the old wall-to-wall carpeting and padding, we noticed some kind of black covering that was glued to the foundation. Someone at a hardware store said it was a vapor barrier.

The same black covering is also underneath the carpeting on the basement stairs. It's turning into a black powder and has fallen through the cracks underneath the stairs into little piles.

It is pretty easy to scrape this stuff off the floor and my husband wants to go ahead and do this.

Anyone have any idea what this might be?

Thanks!

MarthaB