Rendering repair advice, please.

[freckles]

The bottom of this wall needs repaired and tidied up. It has been like this for a long time and there is no damp inside the house that I know of. I lowered the ground level because it seemed too close to the damp course. I think the damp course is above the last row of bricks, and I read that the soil should be 150mm below this. However, now that I’ve done this, it exposes these sections of damaged render. Can I just get these damaged sections patched up do you think, or is there more to it than that? Would I have been better leaving the soil level as high as it was?

 

[RandomGrinch]

Hi,

I believe you've absolutely done the right thing by lowering the soil level.
And yes, as long as those bricks are in a decent condition, you can patch repair the render (ready mixed waterproof repair render is available).
Make sure the loose stuff visible in those mortar joints is raked out first.
It would be a good idea to repair that gully as well. Maybe with something like a concrete gully surround:



Good luck

 

[freckles]

Thanks a lot. That's a really helpful answer, much appreciated. I'll go ahead with you advice. Looks like a gully surround should have been put in years ago, and it will solve the problem of soil spilling into the drain.

 

[tell80]

The render should stop above the DPC, it should not go bridging the DPC into the soil beleow.
so knock off all render below the DPC. Andshow on a pic exactly which bed course the DPC is in.
Clear away all rubble around the gulley and show a pic of the gulley as it is. its possible the cast iron rain pipe is rotted and leaking up the back.

 

[RandomGrinch]

I may be wrong, but I believe the OP was talking about only patching the render highlighted (the house render/roughcast? appears to start over the brick above the air vent):



These are well below the DPC.
I don't believe a patch of render in those areas will do any damage, and will help any spill from the downpipe flow into the drain without damaging the brickwork further, but I may be wrong.

Good point about the downpipe

 

[freckles]

I don't think the render starts till below the DPC, and the drainpipe seems sound.

 

[tell80]

OP i dont understand you, the render must finish above the DPC where is the DPC?

 

[RandomGrinch]

Again I may be wrong, but I believe the OP is talking about only the thin strip of render visible below the air brick and tidying up the area's I highlighted.
I think it is still ok to patch repair the areas highlighted, however for balance you could see this thread:

https://www.diynot.com/diy/threads/rendering-over-damp-bricks-below-dpc.428154/page-1

If you choose not to re-render those patches, replace any badly spalled bricks and repoint the rest and the result should be a good one!

 

[freckles]

Thanks, lots of views to think over.
Tell 80, maybe the render technically should have finished above the dpc but it has been rendered below the dpc, probably from when it was built, so I just want to repair the gaps. Fortunately the ground in that area is generally very dry as it is under projecting eaves.