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Thanks for the detaied explanation I've been thinking about this and I think that the current concrete slab may have been installed at the same time as the access point to the public drain that runs through our garden (you can see the metal cover in the image). If we took up the concrete slab...

I was hoping a smoother surface wouldn't catch so much dirt / dust that gets tracked over the place!

Would you mind explaining what you mean by sunken gulley? Yeah I do think that the concrete is higher than the DMP - the water does drain away from the house though as it's slightly sloped. We had thought about putting in a french drain around the exterior of the house to drain the water away...

There is a concrete slab just outside my back door which I absolutely despise. It always seems to be filthly with a green tinge (i'm assuming because of standing water). I dont know if I have the energy to pull it up and re-lay it as I wont be in this house for more than another year or two...

Hello, My property has a concrete floor so the old air bricks are redundant, and the cavity behind them is quite large, resulting in condensation forming on the inside wall. What should I use to fill the cavity, and what should I use to block up the hole once i've removed the airbrick?

Hello, I have a flat in a conservation area. The other freeholders and I are looking at installing a new drainpipe as we don't currently have one servicing the building (it's a terrace and goes to our neighbours, but as a result we are getting water coming over the front of the building as the...

I've been chasing out some back boxes ahead of my electrician coming in to re-wire my flat, and some of the bricks behind the chase have crumbled, leaving some quite large gaps behind where the back boxes are going to go. I remember hearing somewhere not to use bonding to fix them in, as it can...

Apologies I missed that in my reply - The 40mm slope is over about 4m

Hello, If I were to cut the plug sockets out at 480mm above the floor level, then on one side the plug sockets are 40mm lower then the other side of the room There's only two doors in my small flat (bathroom and bedroom) but assuming both doors would need to be planed to make them open. I...

Hello, I am just in the process of rewiring my flat and after measuring all of the new locations for the plug sockets at 480mm above floor level I checked them with a laser and noticed that they aren't level. As it turns out one side of the concrete floor is 40mm lower than the other (the room...

Thanks for the advice so far There's no need to rewire any of the lighting, it's just all of the sockets are surface mounted which is quite ugly. I was thinking about cornicing or something similar to hide it if we ran horizontally near the ceiling but my electrician said there would probably...

Hello, I have a basement flat which currently has surface mounted sockets. I want to chase all of these in whilst I am refurbing it, and when my electrician came round he mentioned that I would need to remove the ceiling to put all of the cables in, and then chase down the walls to where I...

Yeah as we're in a conservation area any windows / doors that we change have to be sympathetic to the local area (no uPVC etc). OK great, the building itself is 4 stories high, and we're the bottom flat. If I do a line drawing of the elevations, do I need to do it for the entire building? Would...

Hello, I live in a ground floor flat of a victorian terrace in London. I'm looking at replacing the back window leading to my garden with a set of french doors. The work will also involve bricking up the old back door. I have got permission from the leaseholder, however as I understand it I...

Yes I think we'll be introducing ourselves straight away to see if they have any issues there. So what do you think is the issue with the concrete base? is it the fact that it's too high and bridging the DPC or that it might not have a DMP. Thanks for your help on this by the way

Not quite. The front elevation is sunk into the ground, but the rear elevation is level with the garden. Seems to be quite common in London, you get a lot of houses turned into blocks of flats with upper ground floor and lower ground floor

Yep! Have a read here all about damp surveys and rising damp etc - https://www.heritage-house.org/damp-and-condensation/the-fraud-of-rising-damp.html I'd much rather get advice from people who have experience dealing with the issues themselves rather than trying to push me to spend money on...

Sorry to answer a few of the questions in this thread I have missed... I don't complete on the flat until next month, so I haven't been able to get in and do anything intrusive just yet. As a result I haven't been able to find the DPC. In the past there has been a concrete render applied to...

Air bricks on front elevation Other side of air bricks. Have been covered with a cement plaster Another picture of the inside wall of the front elevation. Located where another air brick is Wood rot on the left hand party wall in our corridor. This was wet to the touch Screed Floor...

If the DMP has failed in the walls of the house, or if it is bridged by either the inside or the outside, and I install a chemical DMP what is the best course of action following this? Would it be best just to remove the plaster and let the wall dry out for a few weeks / months and then plaster...