To cut or not to cut

[Thatspellstrouble]

Hey guys

Sorry if this has been asked before, I did a quick search but didn’t see anything.

I’ve got a concrete ramp outside mine that has bridged the dpc and pushes water into my kitchen every time it rains. I’ve finally got a week off to do something about it so I’m hiring a jack hammer to break it up.

My question is.. should I saw the concrete where it makes contact with the house first (about 3m of its length is attached to the house) or would it not matter that much?

Now that I’m typing this I’m getting the vaguest sense of de ja vu…


The bricks on the wall are in poor condition any due to being painted some time ago.

I know this is probably better suited to a builder forum but this is the only place I have an account haha.

 

[Cubist]

Seems that come what may the concrete needs to come out but I would be very wary of using a jack-hammer so near to the house, particularly as the depth of the concrete may be unknown. In your shoes I would start at the outer edge as far from the walls of the house as I could and dig out a channel maybe a foot wide before extending this toward the house until all the concrete is removed. The aim here would be to control and limit the possibility of disruption to the brick-work, foundations/footings of the walls.

 

[Toby Newell]

Always cut before breaking.

 

[88v8]

Start at the outside and work towards the house.

 

[Gothichome]

To my eye this looks to be a bit of a raised landing, am I correct? If so then there must be a low spot in front of your door. I think depending on how deep the low area is you might get away with scarifying the landing parallel to the door. This would allow the water to drain off the edge of landing.
Ron

 

[Thatspellstrouble]

Thanks for your help guys - gothic I’m not sure the difference between raised landing and a ramp but it’s gone now anyway! I did consider trying to seperate it but my yard is small and removing gives it a bit more room.


The ramp was maybe 80% concrete, a lot of bricks in there as well as another step which I’ve tried to save as much as I could.

Whilst sawing between the door and the ramp i appear to have gone through a protruding lintel(?) below the door, I think this is could have been what has been pushing water in as the dpc ends on either side of it so it’s exposed to the elements a bit.

Happy how well it came away from the wall and floor though! Was expecting a bumpy mess.

 

[malcolm]

That looks much better. It's always rewarding to see a wall dry out after removing something silly.

 

[Toby Newell]

fantastic work