Broken brickwork below dpc and doorway

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27 Sep 2011
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Somerset
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United Kingdom
Potential purchase of a house, but the apparently poor workmanship is worrying.

There used to be a garage attached to the house, which has recently been torn down, leaving broken bricks ( where the garage was keyed into the house) with holes going into the cavity. This is unsightly but fixable.
My issue is with the state of the brickwork below dpc, particularly where the external side door is. The bricks, which do not seem to be engineering bricks, have lots of mortar missing and the concrete block in the doorway has been carlessly smashed off leaving holes that seem to go quite far back.
The immediate vicinity has now been blocked paved, witha channel along the wall, so any water tends to pour off into this channel and up against the broken brickwork/block.
To me this is going to cause an issue with damp, but the vendor ( an investor who didn't live in the house and employed a 'builder' to rip the garage down) claims its just cosmetic and will cause no problems.
Is he right?
 

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Potential purchase of a house, but the apparently poor workmanship is worrying.

There used to be a garage attached to the house, which has recently been torn down, leaving broken bricks ( where the garage was keyed into the house) with holes going into the cavity. This is unsightly but fixable.
My issue is with the state of the brickwork below dpc, particularly where the external side door is. The bricks, which do not seem to be engineering bricks, have lots of mortar missing and the concrete block in the doorway has been carlessly smashed off leaving holes that seem to go quite far back.
The immediate vicinity has now been blocked paved, witha channel along the wall, so any water tends to pour off into this channel and up against the broken brickwork/block.
To me this is going to cause an issue with damp, but the vendor ( an investor who didn't live in the house and employed a 'builder' to rip the garage down) claims its just cosmetic and will cause no problems.
Is he right?
The detailing for that door sill is all wrong now that the external structure is absent. The small shelf of concrete will catch rainwater (cause damp) and the stub of concrete will (thermally) wick in the cold. It's very poor.
 
My thoughts too. That block of concrete needs to be removed and replaced with what though.?
It's a new door ( despite the crud all over it) and the vendor insists the whole area is correct and not an issue. I'm no builder, but it looks wrong to me, for the reasons you said.
 

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