Wet walls after heavy rain

[Mr Creosote]

After the recent bad weather, I’ve noticed that we’re getting a bit of rain splashing up on the side of our house.

As you can see from the picture, the patio is at the same height as the DPC, with a gravel French drain between the paving and the house.

Now, we don’t have a damp issue as far as I can tell. The house is five years old now, and this hasn’t caused an issue, but an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, as they say, so I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on this?

Am I worrying over nothing, or is this something I should be addressing?

[Lotobear]

I wouldn't worry - the cavity will prevent any water reaching the inside surfaces and brickwork is 'designed' to get wet and then dry out.

Furthermore unless I'm mistaken I seem to see a weepvent at DPC level so you have probably got a stepped DPC to address the external levels issue

[abzmike]

That’s rookie damp walls compared to mine under where gutters have been pulled down by snow and I’ve not had a chance to put them back.

[Mr Creosote]

Lotobear said:

I wouldn't worry - the cavity will prevent any water reaching the inside surfaces and brickwork is 'designed' to get wet and then dry out.

Furthermore unless I'm mistaken I seem to see a weepvent at DPC level so you have probably got a stepped DPC to address the external levels issue

That's interesting. I think I misunderstood how a stepped DPC works. I thought the DPC would be higher on the outside, so the wet lower brick work would be 'under' the DPC, but it looks like that's not the case.

Here was me thinking it had all been installed incorrectly! Thanks for clarifying.

[p1doc]

abzmike said:

That s rookie damp walls compared to mine under where gutters have been pulled down by snow and I ve not had a chance to put them back.

same here in aberdeenshire lol, took 3 days and a lot of skinned knuckles but sorted snow vheavy this year though!

[Panamax]

I don't understand the brickwork at that corner closest to the camera. What's going on with the bonding?

[Mr Creosote]

abzmike said:

That s rookie damp walls compared to mine under where gutters have been pulled down by snow and I ve not had a chance to put them back.

Haha I can imagine. We used to live in a Victorian cottage that I think had been damp continuously since about 1870

[Mr Creosote]

Panamax said:

I don't understand the brickwork at that corner closest to the camera. What's going on with the bonding?

It’s just the design of the wall. There are raised bricks in a sort of castellated pattern on the corner. It does look weird from this angle.

[JoshSm]

Panamax said:

I don't understand the brickwork at that corner closest to the camera. What's going on with the bonding?

The angle makes it look weird but it's just a slightly projecting quion on the corner.

[Mr Creosote]

JoshSm said:

The angle makes it look weird but it's just a slightly projecting quion on the corner.

Quoin. That's a new word for me. Every day's a school day

[Wacky Racer]

If you are concerned you can always paint a couple of clear coats of "Thompson's water seal" on the bottom five courses but I wouldn't bother, bear in mind sometimes it changes the colour of the brick work slightly.

https://www.screwfix.com/p/thompsons-water-seal-cl...

[shtu]

The gound is a little high relative to the DPC and air brick level, but it's not awful, and think about the work needed to reduce that level - not worth it.

The "french drain" is probably a sprinkle of gravel over the top of the soil, so maybe dig down and see what's really there. Not hard to dig it down a foot or so and make sure it's gravel all the way.

[wolfracesonic]

Mr Creosote said:

JoshSm said:

The angle makes it look weird but it's just a slightly projecting quion on the corner.

Quoin. That's a new word for me. Every day's a school day

Snecking is the new word you want. The brickwork will cope ok OP but it’s not great to have the air bricks half buried in what is effectively a soak away. I’m guessing the paving was laid after the building was done.

[Mr Creosote]

wolfracesonic said:

Mr Creosote said:

JoshSm said:

The angle makes it look weird but it's just a slightly projecting quion on the corner.

Quoin. That's a new word for me. Every day's a school day

Snecking is the new word you want. The brickwork will cope ok OP but it s not great to have the air bricks half buried in what is effectively a soak away. I m guessing the paving was laid after the building was done.

It was all done when the house was built, but I guess that patio went down last.

The air brick thing came up on the survey, actually, but the surveyor said it wasn’t a huge issue - just need to keep the air bricks clear of leaves etc. it is a bit naff though, I agree.

I think at some point I will dig down two bricks and add a brick’s worth of gravel so the level is just below the air bricks.

[wolfracesonic]

Mr Creosote said:

It was all done when the house was built, but I guess that patio went down last.

The air brick thing came up on the survey, actually, but the surveyor said it wasn t a huge issue - just need to keep the air bricks clear of leaves etc. it is a bit naff though, I agree.

I think at some point I will dig down two bricks and add a brick s worth of gravel so the level is just below the air bricks.

Not sure how involved you want to get but these would solve any issues re. Water getting in/blocked with leaves.
Periscope vents.

[Mr Whippy]

Yep I’d want the air bricks un-occluded.

Is it a solid floor or floating? Do those air bricks go to those periscopes to the sub-floor cavity? Some new builds have a floating slab… deffo don’t want that filling up with water.

[Mr Creosote]

wolfracesonic said:

Not sure how involved you want to get but these would solve any issues re. Water getting in/blocked with leaves.
Periscope vents.

Thanks. I've seen these and wondered how they work. Presumably they cut right through the DPC?

[Mr Creosote]

Mr Whippy said:

Yep I d want the air bricks un-occluded.

Is it a solid floor or floating? Do those air bricks go to those periscopes to the sub-floor cavity? Some new builds have a floating slab deffo don t want that filling up with water.

Suspended concrete. Beam and block. I think they must go to the sub-floor cavity.

I thought about water getting in when I was pressure-washing the patio. Is this really bad? I assumed so long as there was air flow underneath it would all dry out, unless we had a flood which I think would be vanishingly unlikely where we are (towards the top of a steep hill).

[Simpo Two]

wolfracesonic said:

Mr Creosote said:

It was all done when the house was built, but I guess that patio went down last.

The air brick thing came up on the survey, actually, but the surveyor said it wasn t a huge issue - just need to keep the air bricks clear of leaves etc. it is a bit naff though, I agree.

I think at some point I will dig down two bricks and add a brick s worth of gravel so the level is just below the air bricks.

Not sure how involved you want to get but these would solve any issues re. Water getting in/blocked with leaves.
Periscope vents.

Presumably the high end goes inside!

[hidetheelephants]

shtu said:

The gound is a little high relative to the DPC and air brick level, but it's not awful, and think about the work needed to reduce that level - not worth it.

The "french drain" is probably a sprinkle of gravel over the top of the soil, so maybe dig down and see what's really there. Not hard to dig it down a foot or so and make sure it's gravel all the way.

That would be my concern; where is the DPC relative to all this? It's not obvious which course of mortar it's in. Judging from the air brick things the patio is rather high; lowering it would be rather a lot of work, I'd content myself with lowering the level of the french drain and if the OP is still not happy perhaps trim back the slabs a few inches to reduce splash back.