Gravel on outside walls and wet wall.

[Hasan Ali]

Hi

Recently I have done my new driveway from a friend like builder. He advised me to put gravel next to the outside walls (instead of putting a drain). Another plumber friend has seen the work and he says that the driveway paver should really have put a drain next to the walls instead of putting gravel.

What do you think? Is gravel OK?

Also I noticed that during winter/rainy days, part of my outside wall remains wet.

Is this cause for concern?

I do get white patches on my external wall as well.

thanks for your help.

 

[stuart45]

Could be the photo, but that tiled cill looks like it's running back to the window.

 

[John D v2.0]

looks like water is running back down through the gaps in the cill.
Where is the dpc in the external leaf? If the ground is close to it then it could be splashback soaking in. If it's drying out in the end things should be ok, if it' staying wet too long, the actions of frost can be an issue. You'd notice bricks crumbing then, or mortar falling out after winter.

 

[^woody^]

That damp must have already been there and unrelated to the drive work.

If that is the DPC half way up that wall then you have a blocked cavity going by the pattern

And the white staining indicates a cill problem

 

[Hasan Ali]

Thanks for pointing at the cill problem. I will check it out.