Air bricks in bay window

[Nige F]

Check out our dear departed Vinn - for the epitome of abuse .

 

[^woody^]

As somebody who has experience damp issues caused by concrete paths built up to and over air bricks, i vote to remove the concrete

The OP's situation has been like it for years, not just happened, and unless the OP explains exactly what problem is being caused, then it's been problem free for years too and so as the saying goes .... "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"

 

[^woody^]

Welcome to the internetyou'll get used to it once you've been here a few more years

Yeah, my only complaint is that I'm used to starting it!

 

[JP_]

The OP's situation has been like it for years, not just happened, and unless the OP explains exactly what problem is being caused, then it's been problem free for years too and so as the saying goes .... "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"

How do you know its been problem free for years? Previous owners may have ignore the damp, replaced rotten wood etc.
The concrete outside might only be 5 or 10 years old, I doubt it was put down by the Victorian builders.

 

[^woody^]

How do you know its been problem free for years? Previous owners may have ignore the damp, replaced rotten wood etc.
The concrete outside might only be 5 or 10 years old, I doubt it was put down by the Victorian builders.

What damp? What rotten wood?

Even if the OP was there five minutes, if there was a problem he would know about it, and presumably would have included it in his post, else why else bother posting?

So to be clear, the problem is not that the ground is near the air brick, the problem would be whatever negative occurance exists because of that.

 

[JP_]

Well, he did say there was damping coming in. That sounded like a problem to me.

 

[^woody^]

Its definitely damp and definitely the external concrete causing this damp then, not one of the other several possible causes - like the cracked render or the crappy cill for instance?

 

[HuwT]

Phew! Wasn't expecting my question to cause such a stir. But, moving on...
Thanks for the various suggestions and observations. Yes, point of the post was that there is some signs of damp coming through - nothing major but minor stains on the inside wall. It's previously been tanked with some kind of bitumen coating but that's not intact. We used a damp seal paint, primed with Zinsser and then tried a couple of coats of ordinary white emulsion.
The floor inside is suspended but I haven't lifted the boards as I don't want to wreck the one decent carpet in the house! My other concern is that the floorboards are roughly on the same level as the ground outside. No idea how much space is under the boards or what condition it's in down there.
I was going to repair the sill anyway and we are getting the windows replaced so hopefully that will help reduce ways for moisture to get in.
I had thought about a French drain around the outside. Don't want to dig up more concrete than I have to.
Hadn't thought about the dpc (duh!). Assume there is one but that's not a given...
Maybe I should remove that beautiful render and see how the brickwork looks?

 

[bobasd]

OP,

just saying but:
you've been asked above for pics of the interior and the outside of the bay - it would be helpful to you as a new owner if you provided them?
believe me there's a possibility of far more damage taking place than merely the location of one airbrick.

 

[bobasd]

As we all know it was Freud who said that "Monkey climbing tree exposes more and more of his weird secrets".

So when a poster writes the following, well it makes us all:
stand and stare at Monkey standing there
standing there with his secrets bare.
eg.
Seamanstains
dumbass
FFS
wanqer
bitching
whining
mumsnet

i know your all thinking "not mumsnet OMG he's dissed mumsnet" but gentle readers there's worse - he's attempting to be familiar with me, he sends me terms of endearment with:

"bobby baby X"

 

[John D v2.0]

@bobasd that was pretty random!

 

[^woody^]

It's Gin o'clock somewhere