Paving to damp course height

[MidsTW]

So our landscaper laid our paving about 18 months ago in our back garden.

He replaced the paving installed by the house builder which is level with the driveway where you enter the garden from the side. There are no steps, and with the exception of the fall the garden is 1 level.

The paving is installed just over 1 brick below the top of the air bricks, roughly 8cm. However the paving starts around 10cm away from the house as the haunching runs down to 15cm from the top of the air brick. The haunching is covered with shingle and the fall of the paving goes away from house.

We have no plans to move immediately but does this sound like it would cause us an issue down the line with surveyors?

 

[^woody^]

No.

But there are surveyors, and there are surveyors.

 

[johnny2007]

A few years ago an acquaintance of mine decided to ignore my advice about a paving too close to dpc and bought the property.
He had a kitchen done by a bodger as I refused to get involved with lots of other things wrong in the house (electric keeps on tripping to these days)
A couple of years later the silicone on the worktop seemed to be failing.
I went to have a look and told him the kitchen cabinets were rotten because the walls behind them were rotten because of the dodgy dpc.
In the mean time the dpc had been further compromised by bad guttering leaking, north exposure and paving sloping against the house.
He ignored me, had the silicone replaced.
Few weeks later his wife called me in tears: kitchen had collapsed.
Moral of the story: sort it out.

 

[MidsTW]

I have to say, that sounds like a very bad and unfortunate series of events.

I don’t have any issues, no pooling water, no damp, and the guttering etc all works fine.

I thought about installing a very small French drain along the house if I needed to appease a surveyor.

 

[oldbutnotdead]

No. If the paving sloped towards the house it would be a slight concern but (if I've understood correctly) you've almost got a French drain already and all it has to deal with is rainfall running down the walls.

 

[MidsTW]

Sort of I guess, but yes it doesn’t fill up with rainwater. This runs to the end of the patio

 

[johnny2007]

Sort of I guess, but yes it doesn’t fill up with rainwater. This runs to the end of the patio

View attachment 190370

Sort it out.
IMO leaving it would be risky.

 

[MidsTW]

In your opinion what would be the remedial action?

 

[johnny2007]

Well, that airbrick is levelled with the patio.
It woild need dig the garden down to the correct level and repave.
Or you could create a 4 foot lower strip around the house with good drainage.

 

[MidsTW]

So the damp course is level with the top of the airbrick, which puts it 80mm ish above the paving. I doubt it would be cost effective to get 50m2 of paving relaid.
Did you mean a 4foot lower strip?

 

[oldbutnotdead]

Usual spec is DPC should be 150mm above external ground level. Yours is 120 ish so not ideal, it should be noted by anyone surveying the place but if there's no damp then its unlikely to be a show stopper. If you're really concerned then yes French drain would be the way to go

 

[MidsTW]

Thanks for the reply!
The haunching is angled so the paving is a little higher than it looks.
French drains with pipes look quite large, would a linear drain be better? Like 100mm wide? I guess the edging blocks could be taken out and a deeper channel made for the drain, and then reinstall the blocks

 

[oldbutnotdead]

French drains don't have to be massive, 100mm wide full of pea shingle with 40mm perforated land drain pipe laid in it will do just fine. You could use Aco drains but you'll have to dig deeper to bed them & they'll look a bit industrial

 

[MidsTW]

French drains don't have to be massive, 100mm wide full of pea shingle with 40mm perforated land drain pipe laid in it will do just fine. You could use Aco drains but you'll have to dig deeper to bed them & they'll look a bit industrial

Okay that would work. Would still need to cut out some more depth to accommodate the pipe but there is a 100mm gap to the house already

 

[johnny2007]

My concern was more for the easy water access through the air brick in heavy rain.
5 inches to dpm instead of 6 inches is not a great deal, although not strictly compliant.