Hi,
I have a damp drainage issue with my home, recently purchased but we know what we where buying (the survey confirmed what I suspected), joists are rotten in the front room around the bay window.
I'm 99% sure its all down to the recent driveway. Please have a look at the pics, its been raining today and you can see water forming puddles around the building. You can also see water which is channeled around the bay window (as it is on a slope) but as it goes passed the cut off airbricks it drains through onto the subfloor. As you can see we have a puddle under the floor today after a couple of hours rain.
Two air bricks on this side of the building either side of the bay window. These are two brick's deep and what looks like an original doc is level with the top of the air bricks. Pointing has mostly gone at ground level.
I'll scan in the damp survey diagram later today. His finding was that the high level of the ground level was causing the damp issue, sub floor ventilation must be increase and ground level lowered.
Now I appreciate that the ultimate solution may be to lower the whole driveway but I'd like to try a less drastic solution first, I'm thinking of removing the last course of bricks on the driveway and installing a concrete chanel (so ground level would be 2 bricked down where it meets the houses) which would drain into existing drains. Repointing and reconfiguring the airbricks, my questions are:
1) Am I on the right track?
2) How am far should I dig down and backfill with concrete?
3) I'm thinking of changing the two double air brick's to four single so the would be above ground and 'splash level). How do I calculate the required number of airbricks? Also my house has airbricks on three sides, I thought this was a bad idea? Should I block off the sides?
4) I think the house is lime mortar (1929), should I repoint in lime? If im pouring concrete do I need to repoint below the level of the concrete? If so how long should I wait for the pointing to dry before installing the concrete?
For now im only concentrating on the front, next job will be similar system for the side then the back will be done in conjunction with an extension in about 18 months.
Appreciate the advice in advance, thanks all
I have a damp drainage issue with my home, recently purchased but we know what we where buying (the survey confirmed what I suspected), joists are rotten in the front room around the bay window.
I'm 99% sure its all down to the recent driveway. Please have a look at the pics, its been raining today and you can see water forming puddles around the building. You can also see water which is channeled around the bay window (as it is on a slope) but as it goes passed the cut off airbricks it drains through onto the subfloor. As you can see we have a puddle under the floor today after a couple of hours rain.
Two air bricks on this side of the building either side of the bay window. These are two brick's deep and what looks like an original doc is level with the top of the air bricks. Pointing has mostly gone at ground level.
I'll scan in the damp survey diagram later today. His finding was that the high level of the ground level was causing the damp issue, sub floor ventilation must be increase and ground level lowered.
Now I appreciate that the ultimate solution may be to lower the whole driveway but I'd like to try a less drastic solution first, I'm thinking of removing the last course of bricks on the driveway and installing a concrete chanel (so ground level would be 2 bricked down where it meets the houses) which would drain into existing drains. Repointing and reconfiguring the airbricks, my questions are:
1) Am I on the right track?
2) How am far should I dig down and backfill with concrete?
3) I'm thinking of changing the two double air brick's to four single so the would be above ground and 'splash level). How do I calculate the required number of airbricks? Also my house has airbricks on three sides, I thought this was a bad idea? Should I block off the sides?
4) I think the house is lime mortar (1929), should I repoint in lime? If im pouring concrete do I need to repoint below the level of the concrete? If so how long should I wait for the pointing to dry before installing the concrete?
For now im only concentrating on the front, next job will be similar system for the side then the back will be done in conjunction with an extension in about 18 months.
Appreciate the advice in advance, thanks all
