Wet wall and Bad spalling bricks (Ed.)

[paddylewwwy]

Bought this property just over a year ago. Before competing we had survey and no damp reported, but some brick maintenance and repointing was reported.

Bricks don’t appear to have gotten much worse, but I thought the damp looking patches would dry out over summer, as rear gets a lot of sun.

Wanting to get the bricks replaced and repointing done, but want to understand if there’s an active source of the damp. There is no damp or signs of it inside the property, but there is random patches of darkened bricks, majority below the DPC. However you’ll see on photos that majority of spalled bricks are above the DPC. I can’t tell if previous owner has tried to repoint with poor mixture or what, but you can see pointing around spalled bricks looks different.

I’m aware frost action is making the bricks worse so eager to sort before winter.

It is worth saying I pulled up some boards on decking and bricks underneath don’t look too bad.

 

[JohnD]

It is obviously wet near the ground and will not get better on its own. There is a source of water. The lime bloom suggests a lot of hard water, for example from a water leak. My house is built on chalk and the lime from ground water only shows about a brick and a half above ground, and is not as wet or bloomy as yours. The tap near the wet patch may be a clue. Have you got a water meter?

Stand back and take a wider pic of the whole wall, including all plumbing, drains, downpipes and water features. Mark where the original DPC is, with chalk or coloured tape.

The decking and paving have obviously been added since the house was built. Maybe water is pooling on or under them and not running away from the house. Maybe they conceal a fault. Where are the kitchen and bathroom in relation to the water.

 

[paddylewwwy]

Hi John,

Yea you confirm my worries that there is water somewhere. I must admit the lime bloom I believe is partly due to me jet washing the flagstones careless when I moved in, and potentially splashing the salt on to the brick, although I could be wrong?

We do have a water meter at the front of the house. The kitchen is open plan kitchen/backroom on right side of house, but all kitchen appliances are plumbed into front of the house.

I took a quick picture before work which details the right side of the house where it is worst. I can get a better one after work. DPC highlighted in yellow - on top of 8th course.

The top gutter is cast iron I believe and we share a downpipes with neighbouring property which is on their side of boundary. I could speak to them if they’ve had any problems.

No water features in garden. I have took a couple boards up and no obvious issues underneath decking, although probably wants looking at professionally. I did lift some of the slabs, and there is concrete/mortar underneath. It was damp. I am concerned that water isn’t draining away from them. After rain, the edge of the slab closest to the house dries out the slowest. How would you go about fixing that, digging out a French drain?

Somewhat still puzzled since we have spalled bricks above DPC but no sign of damp inside. Rear of house does get the bad parts of the wind in a gust.

 

[JohnD]

In the wider picture, you can see the lime bloom is at its highest by the tap.

So the water leak is probably there.

Though it might be coming from the overflow pipe above which you can see has been running or dripping