Brickwork spalled below DPC resolutions?

[Heidi Hi]

My first post on this great site so please be gentle.
Recently moved into 1930 house with original bitumen DPC. A lot of the brick work below DPC is spalled.
The paving round the house is in good order, but it's butted up to the house walls (below DPC).
Should we remove some paving to let the walls breathe?
How much spalling is acceptable before we have to intervene and replace?
Trying to tread gently and preserve the best of the old if we can.
Your advice and information greatly received.

 

[tony1851]

Lowering/moving the paving is unlikely to make much difference as the bricks will always remain wet, though admittedly to a slightly lesser extent.

Long-term, best solution is to cut out decayed bricks and replace with frost-resistant bricks.

 

[Heidi Hi]

Thank you tony1851. I didn't fancy disrupting good paving, so if it's not going to make much difference I'll leave it alone.
Some of the bricks have the bitumen painted on top ie DPC. How are these replaced to keep DPC sound?

 

[^woody^]

original bitumen DPC

You don't mean painted on the front of them do you?

 

[Heidi Hi]

No. On the top woody. You can see the bitumen line peeping out between the courses. If a spalled brick is taken out in the DPC layer it will cause a breach, so wondering how this is dealt with.

 

[Dai100]

Anyone able to advise regarding the above query?

 

[Heidi Hi]

Hi Dai 100
Since this post the spalled bricks have been taken out and I had blue engineering bricks put in which have waterproof properties. Hopefully they will mitigate the spots where bitumen lost.

 

[Dai100]

Many thanks Heidi, much appreciated.