Water sitting against wall

[paulw71]

Hi, I'm looking for advice. I moved into my house around two years ago. When we have quite a bit of rain, the water just sits on the path, against the wall, under my living room window. In the picture you can see greenery from next door but this isn't what is stopping the water. I have cleared all of this and it still sits. My concern is the water causing damp in my living room. So far, there is no damp and I recently replaced the skirting and found the walls to be dry. Is there anything i can do to get the water to drain? Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Paul

 

[tomm12]

Given your low liying house position installing french drains etc might not work. You could cut a 150mm x 150mm trench against the retaining wall and install a topping of concrete to slope away from the house to the trench?

It looks like you've got cavity walls but no signs of air bricks for a suspended floor. Is your floor solid? When you removed the skirting did you see any plastic membrane behind the skirting?
Bottom brick courses look like some earlier owner had some injection holes holes drilled for some kind of chemical dpc? Maybe they've worked?

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

One solution, might be to drill a series of holes along the concrete, then refill the holes with coarse sand. You would need an SDS drill and drill bit for that, but it wouldn't take long - couple of minutes per hole. How well it works, will depend upon the sub soil.

 

[opps]

Bottom brick courses look like some earlier owner had some injection holes holes drilled for some kind of chemical dpc? Maybe they've worked?

You must have better eyes than me. I can't see any injection holes.

 

[DiyNutJob]

Where is the nearest drain? If there is one, you could relay the concrete with a slope towards that.

 

[noseall]

Hi, I'm looking for advice. I moved into my house around two years ago. When we have quite a bit of rain, the water just sits on the path, against the wall, under my living room window. In the picture you can see greenery from next door but this isn't what is stopping the water. I have cleared all of this and it still sits. My concern is the water causing damp in my living room. So far, there is no damp and I recently replaced the skirting and found the walls to be dry. Is there anything i can do to get the water to drain? Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Paul
View attachment 322771

Where is the nearest rain-water pipe?

Don't bother drilling holes - they will soon clog and become useless.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Don't bother drilling holes - they will soon clog and become useless.

However, as a quick temporary fix, it will work just fine, until something more permanent can be arranged.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

However, as a quick temporary fix, it will work just fine, until something more permanent can be arranged.

A temporary fix is sweep the water elsewhere, not drill some holes, which will clog up and then after they've clogged up will ...................... be utterly useless. What then? Drill some more?

Better photos showing the wider area/context and where the boundary is would be helpful.

 

[johnny2007]

If I see it correctly, the dpc seems to be on the third course.
In that case, unless water goes over that level, it won't affect the enterior.
Given that everything has been built properly.
As a solution, as you have 3 courses showing, you could install paving and slope it away from the wall.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

A temporary fix is sweep the water elsewhere, not drill some holes, which will clog up and then after they've clogged up will ...................... be utterly useless. What then? Drill some more?

You are over egging it a bit. The holes in the concrete will work, and continue to work, even when eventually they may become choked - they just will not work as well as they did when first drilled, but they will work. The only way to completely prevent them working will be to seal them up - it's called permeability. Just as a drive laid with blocks satisfies the description of permeability.

How do I know it will work? Because I resolved a similar problem in the path, at the back of my house, several years ago, and it still works fine, for the limited amount of water which collected there.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

The holes in the concrete will work, and continue to work, even when eventually they may become choked

The holes will continue to work after they are filled up with debris?

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

The holes will continue to work after they are filled up with debris?

That's why you fill them with course sand, but debris will not completely prevent them from working, to drain the water from the concrete.

 

[paulw71]

Thank you to everyone for all the info. Here are a few more pictures.

 

[DiyNutJob]

Looks like you have drainage on the left side of the photo. If you redo the concrete with a slope away from the wall and towards the left, the existing drainage should take care of it. Currently you have a slope towards the right.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

That's why you fill them with course sand, but debris will not completely prevent them from working, to drain the water from the concrete.

Is there no debris smaller than a grain of sand then?