Hi All
I would welcome the advice from people far more knowledgable that myself!
A couple of weeks ago, I was tidying my kids playroom. I moved a sofa away from an internal wall and found some damp (see photos).
On investigation, the primary cause seems to have been a blocked drain just outside this room which is used by our bathroom and my neighbours bathroom. I've cleared this out and will obviously need to keep it clear in future.
You can see from one of the photos that the gully has been backing up - it's all green around the top from standing water which has clearly found its way through the wall.
I think that's the easy bit...
The hard bit now is the fact that the ground outside has been raised at some point in the past when the previous owner added an extension. Even if I keep the drain unblocked I have a suspicion that the damp may not be entirely eradicated.
I have attached some photos which show an air brick which is below ground level and has been blocked around at some point - it's clear but I don't know how effective it is like this.
I 'think' (but cannot be certain until I pull the floor up) that the DPC is possibly on top of the air brick, and also if I work along that level, the top of the existing gully appears to be level with the top of the air brick. I was considering putting something around the back of the drain pipe (bitumen strip of sorts) to stop splash back onto the wall.
I'm trying to work out what is the best thing to do with the surrounding ground level. I'm guessing that the 'right' thing would be to have the ground level and drain 150mm below the DPC, which I'm also guessing would place the ground at just below the air brick.
I'm not sure how practical that would be - the neighbours ground is at the same level as mine, but more annoyingly, the driveway (see one of the other photos) is at an even higher level and slopes up to the road.
One other option I guess is to install a French drain along the section of wall, but I'm not sure where I would drain it off to and I also don't want to compound things by creating somewhere for water to collect.
And to make it even more complicated, there's a myriad of drains underground from the soil stacks and gully, plus the water supply comes through that route as well.
Welcome some different ideas that I could consider...
Thanks in advance!
Robin
I would welcome the advice from people far more knowledgable that myself!
A couple of weeks ago, I was tidying my kids playroom. I moved a sofa away from an internal wall and found some damp (see photos).
On investigation, the primary cause seems to have been a blocked drain just outside this room which is used by our bathroom and my neighbours bathroom. I've cleared this out and will obviously need to keep it clear in future.
You can see from one of the photos that the gully has been backing up - it's all green around the top from standing water which has clearly found its way through the wall.
I think that's the easy bit...
The hard bit now is the fact that the ground outside has been raised at some point in the past when the previous owner added an extension. Even if I keep the drain unblocked I have a suspicion that the damp may not be entirely eradicated.
I have attached some photos which show an air brick which is below ground level and has been blocked around at some point - it's clear but I don't know how effective it is like this.
I 'think' (but cannot be certain until I pull the floor up) that the DPC is possibly on top of the air brick, and also if I work along that level, the top of the existing gully appears to be level with the top of the air brick. I was considering putting something around the back of the drain pipe (bitumen strip of sorts) to stop splash back onto the wall.
I'm trying to work out what is the best thing to do with the surrounding ground level. I'm guessing that the 'right' thing would be to have the ground level and drain 150mm below the DPC, which I'm also guessing would place the ground at just below the air brick.
I'm not sure how practical that would be - the neighbours ground is at the same level as mine, but more annoyingly, the driveway (see one of the other photos) is at an even higher level and slopes up to the road.
One other option I guess is to install a French drain along the section of wall, but I'm not sure where I would drain it off to and I also don't want to compound things by creating somewhere for water to collect.
And to make it even more complicated, there's a myriad of drains underground from the soil stacks and gully, plus the water supply comes through that route as well.
Welcome some different ideas that I could consider...
Thanks in advance!
Robin
Attachments
Last edited:
