OK so this is a bit of a long one.
We are building an animal shed in the back garden and have been left with a problem with flooding.
The builder left a gap in the external wall for drainage pipes to go through, but finances have meant that we have had to put the build on hold and we would like to use the shell of the building for storage. However every time it rains the building floods, and we figured that it was coming in through the hole where the pipes were going as there is always a puddle there. Last week I took a breeze block and mixed up some mortar, the hole was still quite wet and awkward to get to as it is set below the actual ground level. I tried to set the block I had into the wall, I put a dollop of mortar on the bottom, slapped the brick on that and then pushed mortar into the gaps around it. I then went inside the building and patched up around the brick with mortar, only I could not see the bottom properly and so just whacked a dollop of mortar at the bottom. I was hopeful that this would plug the gap, however today the water was back after some rain last night.
Am I wasting my time trying to get this hole plugged? Do I need to chisel it out and start again? Any clues as to the quickest and easiest way to plug a hole in a wall the size of half a concrete block that will keep water out.
In a couple of years we will probably have saved enough to carry on so would probably like to re-instate the hole then.
As you may have guessed I am not a DIY expert and this is the first time I have ever been involved in anything of this scale.
We are building an animal shed in the back garden and have been left with a problem with flooding.
The builder left a gap in the external wall for drainage pipes to go through, but finances have meant that we have had to put the build on hold and we would like to use the shell of the building for storage. However every time it rains the building floods, and we figured that it was coming in through the hole where the pipes were going as there is always a puddle there. Last week I took a breeze block and mixed up some mortar, the hole was still quite wet and awkward to get to as it is set below the actual ground level. I tried to set the block I had into the wall, I put a dollop of mortar on the bottom, slapped the brick on that and then pushed mortar into the gaps around it. I then went inside the building and patched up around the brick with mortar, only I could not see the bottom properly and so just whacked a dollop of mortar at the bottom. I was hopeful that this would plug the gap, however today the water was back after some rain last night.
Am I wasting my time trying to get this hole plugged? Do I need to chisel it out and start again? Any clues as to the quickest and easiest way to plug a hole in a wall the size of half a concrete block that will keep water out.
In a couple of years we will probably have saved enough to carry on so would probably like to re-instate the hole then.
As you may have guessed I am not a DIY expert and this is the first time I have ever been involved in anything of this scale.
