Damp issue

[millie]

Hi, I have lived in my terrace house 49 years. The front room has a concrete floor and the external wall was injected, twice I think over the years. There's damp again internally and I've just had the pebble dash off and had it replaced with lime render - as the bricks weren't very pretty. The builder recommends having a slate damp course installed. The bottom two courses of bricks don't look very good to me. There's no cavity, it's a double brick wall. Wonder whether it would be an option to have engineering brick dpc. I need some expert advice on how to tackle it.

 

[jamest]

An expensive option retrofitting a slate dpc using a professional builder. If it were me, I would take a cheaper DIY approach. At the moment the old air bricks are 2/3 covered by the paving slabs. Originally, I presume that they would have be exposed as well as the course of bricks below them, I would restore this situation. First, cut back the paving slabs so that they end no closer than 30 cm from the wall (this will reduce rain splash up the wall). Second, dig down so that the course of bricks with the airbricks and the course below are exposed to the air. Third, dig down a few centimetres more and fill up to the bottom of the course below the airbricks with gravel to further limit rain splash and repoint in lime if needed. If there is waterproof paint on the bricks, strip it off.

 

[millie]

Thanks for your response much appreciated

 

[a twig]

Additionally when you do the above you might get really lucky and find a slate DPC in the mortar beneath the airbricks - our house had the airbricks installed in the course above the slate DPC

 

[millie]

Ok thanks. Think it's going to be a DIY project. Much appreciated