Damp external wall

[Lozw86]

Hi folks,

We have a single storey extension, brick and block cavity wall construction I believe, with a flat roof

The front facade is damp and I'm looking for any thoughts on the cause and necessary remedial works please

I think rain might be penetrating the mortar / bricks along the parapet coping. Should we replace the grey coping bricks with coping stones as pictured at the bottom of my post?

I'm aware that the led flashing is not great, could this be part of the issue? The extension was built by the previous owner.

Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks

















Replace grey bricks with something like this?..

[OutInTheShed]

Parapet walls are rarely done properly!

[wolfracesonic]

A brick on edge does look nice I’ll admit but a coping is better for protecting the wall underneath from the elements as you allude to. If you do go for a coping, I’d go for one the full width of the wall (13’’?) with an overhang with a drip groove in it; hard to tell exactly from the pic but it looks the lead is falling back towards the blues.
Another thing to check if you alter things is the length of that ‘nicely’ detailed lead, no length should be longer than 1.5 metres, it will crack at some point in the future if it is.
If you want to retain the brick on edge, Google ‘tile creasing’, this can help shedding water away from the tile below.

[Lozw86]

Thanks. Yes agree the coping would need an overhang to distribute water either onto the flat roof to the rear or clear of the wall at the front

Yes the lead work does run down slightly toward the blue bricks

I will read about the use of creasing tiles, thank you

Which trade should I use to investigate and hopefully resolve this, a bricky or a roofer?