Damp problem on north facing wall

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Hi all,

So I've got an issue with the north-facing back wall of my house generally being rather damp and not in a great state. There are several blown bricks, holes in the mortar and a lot of mouldy looking grime along the bottom three layers of bricks.

There seems to be a couple of reasons so far as I can see. There are very few air bricks - just one for the whole wall whereas as the front has four - there's also no damp course and the walls are cavity insulated. There's also a small gap running down the length of the wall between the concrete path and the wall. This tends to allow water to linger and plants to grow.

I had planned to replace the path as a first port of call, to block up that gap and ensure there's good drainage away from the house. Then tidy up the brickwork as and when. Looking again, though, I wonder whether I should tackle the brick work first.

20140729_200519.jpg


So my question is, what's the best course of action?

Sorry for the long explanation and thanks for any help.

Ed
 
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Pics of the exterior at ground level and the full elevation, and pics of the damp interior area would help?

If you've already tried to post pics its not worked.
 
There's no damp indoors as such. There's a damp smell in the kitchen and the kitchen units were fairly mouldy (along with most of the house) when I moved in but since cleaning these up and fixing the central heating there has been no issue with damp indoors (that's visible).

Instead it's more just to take care of the exterior brick work, both structurally and aesthetically, and possibly help get rid of the damp smell.

Here's another image of the whole back wall.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/bc3pdqrxqlpq5o5/20140805_114900.jpg
 
Thanks for the pic.

You will have a DPC either just above the air bricks or (where it should be) just below. Rake out some mortar and investigate. I assume a suspended floor in the kitchen? If so then more air bricks needed: 10" x 6" plastic air bricks installed above the DPC at rear, front and side elevations.

The pattern of pitted spalling on the brickwork reminds me of brickwork thats been treated with a water seal - the chemicals in the water seal, i guess, are destructive to some bricks. Just anecdotal.

Lightly scrub the lower brickwork, and the vertical staining at the left, and replace the path to slope away from the elevation. Presumably there's no splashing from above?
 
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Thanks for the suggestions.

The kitchen floor is actually solid, which thinking about it probably explains the lack of air bricks - the one air brick on the right is below the suspended bathroom floor.

Not sure about the water seal but it's certainly not something I've applied. There's also no splashing.

So assuming additional air bricks aren't needed for the solid floor section it is largely just a case of tidying up the brick work to my cosmetic satisfaction (obviously plugging any gaps along the way) and sorting the drainage with a new path then?
 
When doing the path you could remove the present gulley arrangements to path surface level, and perhaps combine and take the waste drainage into one gulley only?

You still need more adequate sub-floor ventilation from front to rear to side elevations.

Cavity insulation, esp if exposed to moisture can cause various damp difficulties.

Examine, if possible, the wall plaster behind the kit floor units for damp or salts.
Do you have a membrane under the solid floor?
 
Yeah, taking the drains down to ground level was part of the plan for when redoing the path. Probably won't be combining them but will investigate further once the path is up.

Sounds like the easiest thing to do might be to remove one of the bricks and check the condition of the cavity insulation from outside. From inside there's no obvious evidence of damp that I can see - it's very difficult to tell what's on-going and what's just persistent smell from when the whole house was damp (its mainly the cupboards that smell).

I don't know if there's a membrane under the solid floor. I can't see any evidence of one but I've certainly not ever seen any evidence of rising damp either.

If the insulation seems reasonably sound would it just be a case of leaving as is and installing new air bricks by replacing external bricks or should there be a pass-through installed to get through to the inner wall too?

Thanks for all your help BTW.
 
I cant make out whether you have a "problem" or not. Maybe just leave, and wait and see?

You could examine the cavity insulation when replacing the odd brick but no need for any further air bricks on the kitchen wall.
 
Sorry for the confusion. I was basically trying to work out if there is an underlying problem that is causing the exterior dampness and poor state of the brickwork, such as a lack of ventilation. Or if it's just down to the path not keeping water away.

It sounds like there probably isn't and I can just get on with tidying up the brickwork and laying a new path.

Thanks again for the help.
 

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