Paving slabs bridging between path and house, above dpc?

[deaftoan]

Hi Folks,

I've recently bought a house where the previous owner had its garage converted to an additional downstairs room and extended kitchen. It's a semi detached property and the extension has a pathway to the side of it to allow 5 or 6 other houses (and mine) access to their gardens.

I've located the DPC at the front of the house (about 2 bricks up) and there's a drainage trench along the front filled with gravel for drainage. As i move round to the side of the house, into the lane, the brick where the DPC was located at the front of the property is under the level of the gravel drainage trench. Said trench is also filled with soil on this side as far as i can see and shows no sign of any gravel.

There are steps up the lane (photo attached of the extension wall, on the right) that have been bridged to the wall of the extension (presumably for safety reasons?) by the previous owner but this strikes me as inviting a damp problem. I'm assuming that the builders of the extension left this 6 inch trench clear to avoid a damp issue.

I've taken away some of the paving slabs to see what's down there and it looks like a breeze block support wall has been laid so that they could cement the paving slabs across the top to cover the gap.

Am i right to investigate this or could a different form of damp proofing have been used in light of the lane backing up so tightly to the extension?

Thanks for any advice.

Huw

Breezeblock wall

• deaftoan
• 24 Aug 2013
• 1

Breezeblock wall used as support when laying paving slabs accross trench

Untitled

• deaftoan
• 24 Aug 2013
• 1

 

[masona]

If that was my house, I would break it all up and have the steps at the end of the building keeping the wall free from any future damp problem, you might have to have a plinth render because of the breeze blocks

 

[deaftoan]

Hi masona,

Thanks for the quick response.

I'm assuming the breeze blocks were used as an accepted cost saving because that section of the wall was never going to be clearly visible? If so, should it have been rendered from day one or can a breezeblock wall resist the elements as well as an engineering brick?

 

[masona]

Can't really it see very well, you will know more if you're knocking down the pathway, could be a lintel over drains pipe, if it's breeze blocks then it's not waterproof