Which solution for a damp solid brick wall?

glock339 · 27 Mar 2013

Hi there I've got a damp solid brick gable end, unfortunately next door's land is about 150mm higher than my timber floor level. Here's a crude cross section pic:

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glock339
20 Apr 2010
2

And in here's a photo of next doors path (my house on the right), not sure if you can see but it's pretty mossy & damp looking. Shortly after moving in I did cut back the render on my house which was bridging the chemical DPC but as suspected it didn't really make any difference as the land is still higher than my internal floor.

Untitled

glock339
20 Apr 2010
2

Now although I'm on quite good terms with the next door, I'm obviously VERY limited to what I can do to remedy the situation.

The only thing I've thought of so far is to ask if I can cut 4 or 5 inches of path away from my wall them dig down as much as I can with a pick or something (should be fun

) & then just run a DPM along my wall in the trench before refilling & re-concreting & possibly put in a small slope from my wall.

Or do the same thing but go to the trouble of sticking a land drain in the bottom of the trench & refill with gravel etc???

Dealing with damp not really my thing so any pointers would be most appreciated!
Cheers.

AdamCH · 27 Mar 2013

Did you lower the floor in your house or did they put the path in above your damp proof?

If the second they I don't think I'd be asking politely, I'd have a pick axe on it.

pinenot · 27 Mar 2013

I'm siding with Adam on this one, the neighbor has the responsibility should they have been responsible for the build up. I'm sure if you asked a (solicitor Sshh) they would tell you, as the offender (if I can be so bold as to put it that way) they are responsible for correction. However with a little bit of tact I'm sure you can work something out, you have the right on your side, if you get my meaning. It's not an unreasonable proposal.
My choice remedy would be to dig down and expose the wall down to found then put in a dpm before backfilling...pinenot

glock339 · 27 Mar 2013

My house was built about 90 years ago & there's about 60 years ago, so at some point in history it was built above mine but it was long before me or next door moved in. I only moved in about year ago & while ripping the house apart came across lots of different bodged attempts that must have been carried out over the years at fixing the damp problem.

glock339 · 27 Mar 2013

Just seen the other reply there. I get on very well with the lady that lives there so I'm sure she'll be ok with me doing a bit of work to the path.

AdamCH · 27 Mar 2013

Your house seems to go right up to the boundary line? It hasn't been extended up to the line has it?

Also possible that next door has put a raised path in that's above their DPM as well.

Difficult to believe that it would have been built that way from the start. If the house/path has been added then their responsibility to sort + fix any damage it caused to your house. If your house was extended & not DPM'd properly then your problem to fix (& you're going to have to get professional help).

glock339 · 27 Mar 2013

No my house has never been extended & the path has apparently been there since before next door moved in about 30 years ago. Ive checked & the path isn't above there DPC.

I was hoping one of the methods I suggested or someone else could suggest will help?

Cheers.

glock339 · 7 Apr 2013

Think I'll give it a go next week then & see what happens.

glock339 · 30 Sep 2015

I realise this is an old post now but something happened today that reminded me about it. I did actually dig out a trench along the entire side of my house, injected a DP course, put in a land drain, put one of those dimpled cellar DPMs against my wall, lined the pit with garden fabric & filled it all back in with gravel. Took best part of a week & a few hundred quid but job done & actually had dry walls last winter

…

I've just popped my head over the wall neighbours wall a few mins ago to have a nosy at what the builders have been doing next door & guess what they've laid a nice new concrete path rite up to my wall again, even made sure they cut away my DPM so it connects right onto my solid brick wall bless them

Just can't believe it

ree · 30 Sep 2015

Who "owns" the path?

FWIW: no matter who owns the path one can't interfere with a neighbouring property.

Was what you did back in 2013 discussed or approved by the neighbours?

Have you recently checked the humidity levels under your floor near the wall?

What do you intend to do?

glock339 · 1 Oct 2015

1) Next door own the path.

2) Yes I spoke to them first to explain the problem & get permission to have access to their property for the time required to carry out the work, at the time she seemed to understand the problems I was having & was happy for me to do the work. After it was complete they asked a few times if it had made any difference & seemed glad that I was happy with the job etc so I thought all was well.

3) No I haven't checked humidity levels under the floor or near the wall.

4) I really don't know what to do at the moment, the Mrs has saw the neighbour tonight & had a word with them & apparently the builder had assured her everything they were doing was OK & nothing he was doing would affect my house at all. My partner said although she didn't exactly say it, she got the impression my neighbour didn't like the 200mm of gravel running along the side of my house & asked for the path to be taken all the way to my house & the builder basically told her what she wanted to hear in that everything would be fine.

Even if he'd just concreted up to my DPM which rose up out of the ground by at least 150mm or so it wouldn't have been as bad but instead he just cut it down as low as possible & concreted right up over it onto my wall so it looked a bit neater. So I'm guessing the main issues now will be the direct bridging of the concrete to my wall plus the rain splash?

geraldthehamster · 1 Oct 2015

Given the prior knowledge of the problem, I don't think your neighbour has a leg to stand on, here. The new concrete needs digging out alongside your house, and the damp proofing measures need to be reinstated.

Cheers
Richard

glock339 · 1 Oct 2015

I hope so Richard as it looks like things are going to get messy

Unfortunately I'm out at work all day today because the builder decided to call round & no surprise he wasn't exactly his usual cheery self when talking to my partner. He basically said exactly what I thought he would in that he's a builder with years of experience & knows everything whereas I haven't got a clue what I'm talking about. When she told him we weren't convinced there wasn't a problem he said there was nothing we could do about it anyway apart from wait until winter & see if the damp starts again, then write a letter to my neighbour regarding legal actions.

So now it looks like I need to get some advice, what would be my first port of call the Council or Solicitor etc?

Sad times as I've always got on very well with my neighbour & now it looks like this builder may have ruined the relationship.

geraldthehamster · 1 Oct 2015

In an ideal world I'd be talking to the neighbour and getting the builder to rectify the situation now, while he's still there. There's no argument against the fact that putting an external path against a wall above the damp course, let alone above the internal floor level, is going to cause problems.

glock339 · 1 Oct 2015

I hate to say it but I don't think theres any chance of the builder re-doing the work, he's adamant the fact that hes put the fall of the path away from my house (which I have not checked yet) that there are no issues at all with his work. He also told my partner the DMP I put in wouldn't have worked anyway as it had holes in it, I can only presume he was referring to the dimples on the sheet which are there to keep the sheet off the wall & stop possible capillary action as there were no holes? My partner then brought up the fact there should be 150mm from the ground to the DPC, his reply was rain bounces higher than that anyway so that wouldn't make any difference either.

I'll be having a word with the builder next time I'm home & they're around & I'll also try talking to the neighbour again but I don't hold out to much hope. I couldn't agree more about getting this sorted now, not in several months time when he's moved onto the next job somewhere & I have water in the house.

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Which solution for a damp solid brick wall?

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