What to do about air brick below soil level

[mightyulysses]

The previous owners of our home have partially covered up the air brick in the back of the 1910s house with concrete tiles that go flush against the building.

As I understand, I should create space around the air brick to enable proper ventilation and to stop water getting in. I was thinking of trimming the tiles back along the back wall and remove the soil and somehow ensuring the water drains into the drain – is this the right thing to do?. Or is this a pro job? Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Burnerman]

You have the right idea.....get those airbricks exposed as soon as you can.
Its possible to cut those flags back and dig out a trench along the length of your wall as the DPC will be covered too.
John

 

[ree]

You should have fully exposed air bricks at all elevations of the house giving you full thro ventilation. See screwfix terracotta air bricks.
How many a/bricks per elevation do you have?

Where is your DPC? Presumably bridged by the concrete flags at the rear elevation?

You'd do best to lift all the nearest to the wall flags - and cut and replace them after sorting out bridging and drainage issues.

The green stains are the results of splash - from where? Gutters?

Have you crawled your sub- area and examined all joist tails resting in DPC bridged walls?

A pic of the whole rear wall would help.