Damp

[cmsslee]

Hi all, looking for some pointers on a problem with damp on the front bay window of my Victorian semi if anyone is kind enough to offer some advice.

Noticed that the paint on the interior wall was starting to bubble/flake the other night so I went outside to take a look. Below the DPC there is clearly moisture in the brickwork.

Untitled

• cmsslee
• 24 Jan 2014
• 1

There is a rain gully to the right of the bay which was overflowing last summer due to a blocked sewer, as far as I can tell it is flowing freely now and I would have expected any damp caused by that to have dried out by now?

I suspect that the cause is due to the front 'drive' which is paved and slopes towards the house from the street with no drainage channel, and the pointing around the bottom of the house is generally poor. Therefore any rainwater runs off towards the house. However as you can see in the pic the damp doesn't appear to start precisely at ground level, and there is never any standing water/puddles, so I'm not sure.

Anybody got any ideas or things I can check? We are planning on having the drive redone this summer so will ensure the run off is taken care of then, I just want to check it's not something else causing it.

 

[Blagard]

You want to check what guarantee you may have with that injection DPC. While the outer brick appears to have been treated do you know if the inner brickwork was also injected? If not that may be the cause of the dampness inside.

The dampness below DPC is perfectly normal and this will happen every time it rains because rain water splashes and soaks the bottom two courses of brickwork.

 

[cmsslee]

Thanks for the reply Blagard. I'll have to dig out the paperwork from when we bought the house as the previous owners had the DPC done.