garden slopes down towards house wall

[chatlow]

Hi All

New house has front garden with a bit of a slope (towards the house) and the grass comes up to the brick, no drain or gravel separation. It's been like this for many many years. No damp issues and DPC is above where is meets.
Wondering how bad this is for the foundation? We are thinking about cutting out a foots width from the wall and replacing with gravel (and/or an aco drain which would run along to the main roof drain)

 

[JohnD]

Digging a French drain beside the house will help the water drain away. You are not allowed to run groundwater into sewers.

While digging, you will see if the wall is wet or damaged. I have known lime mortar eroded and washed away by long term leaks, but cement is unaffected. Lime joints can be hosed out to wash out the mud and repacked with cement mortar.

You can use pebbles, cobbles or broken brick in the trench. Large irregular pieces have bigger gaps and drain better than smalls or shingle. You can use ornamental pebbles on the top with an edging. Use landscape textile to prevent mud or soil getting in and blocking the drainage.

The top should be at least two bricks below the DPC. More is better. Clean out the airbricks.

 

[chatlow]

thank you. the drain i mentioned is for rain water, but if we decided on creating a french drain then would need to ensure it slopes to that properly. Worried about getting that wrong and it doesn't drain properly and causes a worse situation, so maybe easier just to fill the small trench with pebbles etc

 

[JohnD]

If you're on a slope, you could lead it round the side of the house and let it run away downhill. It will tend to soak into the ground at the bottom of the trench.

 

[chatlow]

the trench will be starting alongside two paving slabs (which are in front of the door) and it will then follow along to the left side of the house where there's a drain on the side. There's another driveway there and garage so would rather drain it either in the ditch or link it to the roof drain