Removing a Random Mini Wall

[TheFew]

Hi,

As you can see from the below pictures, where my gas flue exits the house there is a random section of brick work that seemingly does nothing useful – as far as I can tell.

The rectangle of brickwork does however collect rainwater when it rains heavily and holds it against the house.

As such I was thinking of removing the three courses of bricks (but potentially leaving the tall section in place).

The three courses of bricks do have a DPC in place (not sure if this makes any difference).

Would there be any special trick to removing these bricks or is it simply a case a knocking each brick out in turn?

I don’t want to start taking them out without checking that it won’t cause any issues.

Thanks in advance for your advice.

PS – clearly I will be very careful around the gas pipe!!


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[theprinceofdarkness]

I think that's your problem, the base inside the box seems to be at a lower level then the surrounding concrete, so it will always fill with water after rainfall. But it seems to be under the DPC so should not put damp into the house. The new rendering is bridging the damp course as the "wall" might be. Also water that falls on top of the "wall", sod's law says will run towards the house wall.
Removing the wall, it all depends on how tough the mortar is. It could be worth while to drill out the mortar courses, so as to weaken them. If its pre 1950, then it could be lime in which case a bolster would remove the whole wall in 10 minutes
Frank