Damp flooring - front garden drainage help!

[gp999]

Hi, my first post here, hope someone can advise!

We have a terraced victorian house, the flooboards (chipboard) have a damp patch at the front of the house, in the corner to one side of the bay window. It is pretty wet, lucjily thre plaster looks dry so assume it is coming from the bottom of the house and up through the joists perhaps.

We are having the roof looked at, but i can see rain that hits the house is just running down the wall to that area, and obviously isn't draining away properly. The front garden is a small gravelled area, but the gravel isnt deep, i think it is just dirt/rubble below.

The house is on a hill, so the neighbours house is higher up, meaning water that collects in their garden may well be draining into our. Either way that doesn help either.

Would it be a good idea to dig a trench around the front of the house, right down to the soil and fill it with gravel, so that rain has somewhere to go?

or would it be better to pave the front garen and sploe it so that water runs down into the pavement and street kerb/gutter?

Thanks!

 

[RedHerring2]

You'd be better off in the building forum. I'll ask the mods to move it for you.

A simple and quick answer to your questions is:
Yes to the first
No to the second it might be against regs.

 

[gp999]

Ok, that would be great thanks.

Some of the houses down the st have paved front gardens, so it might be OK. But the ditch/gravel idea would be easier/cheaper anyway. Whatever works best and gets rid of the damp!

Thanks

 

[RedHerring2]

External ground level should be minimum 150mm below dpc, to avoid splashing from rain, dripping water, etc to wet the brickowrk above dpc.

An even better solution is to ensure the above is complied with and to provide somewhere for the water in that ditch/french drain to drain to, if it doesn't drain sufficiently where it is lying.

 

[gp999]

Ok that's really useful advice thanks, not sure the house has much of a DPC being an old victorian build though, but the ground level certaibly isn't 15cm lower than the first row of bricks/render...

 

[RedHerring2]

You may have bricks and/or render below dpc, so that is no guide.

Often the dpc can be detected by a slightly thicker mortar course than the rest. Obviously, if your render covers the dpc you won't be able to find it.