Remove concrete in front of house

[dave351]

Hi

I have roughly 1 meter of concrete in front of my house (mid-terrace ~1900) which I am planning to remove and replace with gravel. The concrete is slightly lower than my internal floor which is a concrete floor.

Will this be OK?
I was wondering if this concrete provides any defence from rain water/run off.

Edit - added photo
View media item 107902

 

[Tigercubrider]

Picture?
How thick is it?
does water gather now?
You could possibly just add gravel as decoration onto of the gravel if you do not wish to add drainage or to save effort.

 

[JohnD]

I was wondering if this concrete provides any defence from rain water/run off.

it can if it slopes away from the house (as it should)

if you dig a trench beside the house wall, and fill it with pebbles or cobbles (not gravel), water will drain through it quickly and damp will not rise up it by capillary action, due to the pore size between the stones being large.

 

[dave351]

Picture?
How thick is it?
does water gather now?
You could possibly just add gravel as decoration onto of the gravel if you do not wish to add drainage or to save effort.

Photo added.
It's about 2inch thick as we dug some of this away previously to put fence posts in.
Water doesn't appear to gather but it doesn't slope either.
As you can see the concrete is cracking which is why we want rid of it.

 

[Tigercubrider]

I'd just remove it.
But be aware that the downpipe seems to dump the gutter water close to the house.
You could put in a channel to direct water away.

Make sure you have a door mat as gravel gets dusty and your hall will fill with dirt if you don't wipe your feet

 

[dave351]

it can if it slopes away from the house (as it should)

if you dig a trench beside the house wall, and fill it with pebbles or cobbles (not gravel), water will drain through it quickly and damp will not rise up it by capillary action, due to the pore size between the stones being large.

I'll bear this in mind. In the photo above I will be using the same stones as those.

 

[dave351]

I'd just remove it.
But be aware that the downpipe seems to dump the gutter water close to the house.
You could put in a channel to direct water away.

Make sure you have a door mat as gravel gets dusty and your hall will fill with dirt if you don't wipe your feet

I am leaning towards removing it, it already looks like water is getting throught the edges and cracks.