Along the front of my house I've noticed a stretch of bricks getting pretty wet under the DPC.
This really started when we had scaffold up for 3 months (Nov to Feb) and with all the rain / snow/ wind there was a point where water was running off the scaffold board down the wall and pooling near this area, the gutter above also had a leak which splashed the wall, which I've fixed to be about 95% OK (when rain is really hard it can drip a little). The roof pitch is steep at 47 degrees, which was marvellous for our loft conversion, but the water does rush down the roof!
The ground next to it is tarmac drive, which does slope a little back towards the house as it gets near. In fact we can get a little puddle there, but there is like an concrete edging strip between wall and tarmac.
I have noticed a few "chips" off the bricks in the region as a whole (even above where it's not obviously wet) but put that down to the scaffold / builders bashing the wall, but worried now it's the dampness softening the bricks.
Question really is - should I worry about it getting wet below DPC? Should I protect the bricks with some kind of sealer, should I be digging up the drive (expensive!) and creating a fall? Should I get the guttering replaced to ensure no drips / leaks at all?
Is it just rain spashing off the drive against the wall that can make it quite wet or should I be looking for something from below?
I'm imagining if the bricks get damaged it's almost impossible to get them sorted so want to act now while I can.
This really started when we had scaffold up for 3 months (Nov to Feb) and with all the rain / snow/ wind there was a point where water was running off the scaffold board down the wall and pooling near this area, the gutter above also had a leak which splashed the wall, which I've fixed to be about 95% OK (when rain is really hard it can drip a little). The roof pitch is steep at 47 degrees, which was marvellous for our loft conversion, but the water does rush down the roof!
The ground next to it is tarmac drive, which does slope a little back towards the house as it gets near. In fact we can get a little puddle there, but there is like an concrete edging strip between wall and tarmac.
I have noticed a few "chips" off the bricks in the region as a whole (even above where it's not obviously wet) but put that down to the scaffold / builders bashing the wall, but worried now it's the dampness softening the bricks.
Question really is - should I worry about it getting wet below DPC? Should I protect the bricks with some kind of sealer, should I be digging up the drive (expensive!) and creating a fall? Should I get the guttering replaced to ensure no drips / leaks at all?
Is it just rain spashing off the drive against the wall that can make it quite wet or should I be looking for something from below?
I'm imagining if the bricks get damaged it's almost impossible to get them sorted so want to act now while I can.