We bought a house and fixed it up etc but there is one issue with a gully on the 'old' bit of the house. We're getting water ingress at the back of the fireplace.
On the exterior wall there's a cement plug in a gully and I have no idea why. The downpipe now runs to an adjacent gully, not blocked, but both have been built up to the DPC. I think that the cement plug might be hiding an issue but wanted to ask more informed people first before I go smashing it about.
Pics show what I mean a bit better. On the other side of the wall behind the downpipe is the fireplace, the blocked gully being central to the opening. I wondered if it might have been a water runoff for water coming down chimney but have never seen that before.
In heavy rain, water overflows the guttering and splashes around the gullies; I've plugged a few holes in the wall and dug out the soil from the DPC but there's still some seepage happening.
Could there be a really good reason not to open up the gully or is this perhaps just an old house issue and I need to repoint the wall? And sort the overflowing guttering...
On the exterior wall there's a cement plug in a gully and I have no idea why. The downpipe now runs to an adjacent gully, not blocked, but both have been built up to the DPC. I think that the cement plug might be hiding an issue but wanted to ask more informed people first before I go smashing it about.
Pics show what I mean a bit better. On the other side of the wall behind the downpipe is the fireplace, the blocked gully being central to the opening. I wondered if it might have been a water runoff for water coming down chimney but have never seen that before.
In heavy rain, water overflows the guttering and splashes around the gullies; I've plugged a few holes in the wall and dug out the soil from the DPC but there's still some seepage happening.
Could there be a really good reason not to open up the gully or is this perhaps just an old house issue and I need to repoint the wall? And sort the overflowing guttering...