Hello Guys and Girls and today common damp problems in buildings. This is
usually one of 3 things. 1 Condensation ie. a lack of ventilation
2 Penetrating ie. a leaking gutter or 3 Rising ie. a failed damp proof course. So
on this video it's the damp proof course. Is yours being breached so the damp proof
course is a barrier usually formed by a membrane which is built into the walls
of a building typically about 15 centimeters above ground level and it
prevents damp rising through the walls, so as you can
see here on the inside we've got a lot of damp and peeling plaster and this is
an outside wall now what happened on this property was the driveway had been
built right up against the damp proof course so that was actually being
breached, you had the driveway right up against the walls, you
need at least two courses of bricks downwards to give those bricks space to
breathe so the damp doesn't rise up into those porous bricks and into the
building. So what I've done here is I've removed all the bricks from the driveway
which is pushed up against the side of the building as I say you need at least two
courses of bricks to be breathable and what I'm going to do here is I've
obviously dug this channel out, remove the bricks from the driveway and then
I'm going to just take some fairly big gravel pebbles and just fill that in
just to allow the building to breathe so that's all what I've dug out
there so this is just a quick shot of what I've dug out. [Star Wars] 'We're going in and
we're going in point three five that will keep those fighters off our tails,
pull up you're not gonna make it, I got a little cooked but I'm okay'. Right back to
the video so you can see I've dug a nice channel out here it was just lots and
lots of soil and mud and stones pushed up
against that brick work. So I've got some 20 mm gravel which is basically you
know some decent-sized pebbles and just gonna start pouring it in there
just allows the any rain and wetness just to actually just escape and not sit
up against the wall of the building.
Obviously I'm not gonna fill it up with just one hand I'm just doing this while
I film it once I've stopped filming I'm just gonna pick the bag up and pour it
in but this is just to show you how the pebbles are going to sit up against the
brickwork. So you can see there the bricks on the left, they are quite
damp because you've had all that soil and bits just sitting up against against
the building.
Right so let's get this let's get this little trench filled up. For this small
gulley I think I used 4 or 5 bags of gravel so you can see this is about
20 minutes later we'll have poured all the pebbles in so now when it rains the
water will actually just you know sieve through these pebbles and drain away
instead of sitting up against the house. And then at the end I've just got this
decorative purple kind of pebble granite stuff and just poured that in
just to make it look nice so really you shouldn't have your driveway built right up
against the house it's okay as long as it's two courses down from your damp
proof course so you can see there where the house has been rendered that is
where the damp proof course is and now once you've done that you now need to go
inside hack off all of this damp plaster let it dry out and then get it damp
proofed and replastered and that is the end thanks for watching, and I hope
that's helped somebody out there