Eilise
Member
- Messages
- 1
- Location
- Manchester
Hello,
I'm looking for advice on solving damp in my gable wall. There is a large tarmac carpark (not mine) which adjoins the wall and falls towards a gully at the front corner of my wall.
It's an 1890 redbrick semi and there's no evidence of an original dpc in the wall (i've checked from the internal floor void). It looks as though previous owners have injected two lots of chemical dpc into the bricks and they have cast and insitu concrete curb along the bottom of the wall, I assume to protect it from surface water in the carpark. The wall is still very damp.
From reading this forum, I thought it would be best to dig a French drain along the wall with a channel drain running alongside it on the carpark side to stop too much surface water and silt entering the french drain.
I had a land drainage contractor come to price that up and he said he didn't think it would solve the problem and might make it worse as surface water might overshoot the channel drain and still enter the french drain, plus rainwater would enter. He thinks the tarmac is at a good enough fall for the surace water to quickly run into the gully so didn't suggest I remove it. He only really suggested a new chemical dpc, which I'm reluctant to do after reading advice on this forum.
Does anyone have any suggestions? Am i on the right track with the French and channel drain combo? Should I ignore his advice or does he have a point that the french drain could expose the lower wall to more water?
I'm looking for advice on solving damp in my gable wall. There is a large tarmac carpark (not mine) which adjoins the wall and falls towards a gully at the front corner of my wall.
It's an 1890 redbrick semi and there's no evidence of an original dpc in the wall (i've checked from the internal floor void). It looks as though previous owners have injected two lots of chemical dpc into the bricks and they have cast and insitu concrete curb along the bottom of the wall, I assume to protect it from surface water in the carpark. The wall is still very damp.
From reading this forum, I thought it would be best to dig a French drain along the wall with a channel drain running alongside it on the carpark side to stop too much surface water and silt entering the french drain.
I had a land drainage contractor come to price that up and he said he didn't think it would solve the problem and might make it worse as surface water might overshoot the channel drain and still enter the french drain, plus rainwater would enter. He thinks the tarmac is at a good enough fall for the surace water to quickly run into the gully so didn't suggest I remove it. He only really suggested a new chemical dpc, which I'm reluctant to do after reading advice on this forum.
Does anyone have any suggestions? Am i on the right track with the French and channel drain combo? Should I ignore his advice or does he have a point that the french drain could expose the lower wall to more water?