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Driveways & Paving

Are storm drains a suitable solution for having the driveway too high up damp proof?

Anonymous user 15/03/2024 - 2.46 PM

Just having a block drive put down. They're putting drains all around the exterior wall of the house as the drive slopes from road to house. These lead directly into the drains. My problem is that after reading about the subject the level of the drive needs to be two bricks (6 inches) below the level of the DPC. I understand the DPC to be the mortar bed above the ring of blue bricks, so there should be two courses of bricks showing (the blue ones and the ones below). Well, they had the top of the plastic drain channels half-way up the blue bricks. After questioning this, and speaking to the company owner, they've lowered them, but only to the bottom of the blue brick (so one course below the DPC). Is this acceptable? What would building regs say about this? I'm concerned on 2 fronts: -would this cause a problem with a survey if we ever try to sell? -are we likely to suffer from damp? Like I mentioned, the plastic channel (itself around 4-5 inches deep by the looks of it) separates the blocks from the wall of the house, but I'm just as concerned by the possibility of splashes entering the air bricks, which are literally above the DPC. Some online diagrams explaining the whole 6 inch minimum show water splashing towards air bricks, which is what makes me question whether what they are doing meets building regs. Any advice (urgent as they are currently working on the house) would be gratefully received. Also, who should I take this up with if I have questions? I mean other than the contractor, who is trying to fob me off. Local council planning office? Is this covered by building regs? Cheers My problem is that the builder is not listening to my concerns, saying that is fine. Clearly it should be 150mm. What do I do? Many thanks for your help so far. Much more harmful than the local council. How do I stop him? On what grounds? I can say stop, but he'll ask why. My concern is I don't have any regulations that I can shove under his nose to state how it should be done. I only have my gut feel, which is generally right. I need to able to quote rules and regs. Where can I find those?

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2 Answers

MK Building Services

Rating: 5 out of 5

Bristol

I would always recommend whenever possible, to maintain the 150mm requirement between top of path and the house dpc. The only exception to this, is when you are forming a disabled entrance way to a building, when you bring the path up level to the inside floor height. In your situation as you describe it, where all surrounding levels flow back towards the house. Even if they install aco channels, in times of heavy rain or lying snow you can get a certain amount of pooling against your walls, because the volume of water takes time to disperse. As a result, water will soak into the brickwork and if it’s higher than the dpc can cause damp. I would overcome this by forming a French drain, simply come off of the walls by a minimum of say 150mm all around. install a concrete edging at your desired path/drive level, then place pea gravel into the gap ( min150mm) down from your dpc level. You can then run your aco channel around on the path/driveway side of the edging, so the purpose of that, is if the rain water were to spill over your aco drain, it should run into the French drain and soak into the ground at least 150mm below dpc. Morning, stop him, most councils expect porous paving to be used these days, that allows more surface water to pass through the paving so to reduce flooding. Speak to a surveyor Check what the building regulations state You should be able to find them online

Answered12 March 2019

A U construction

Rating: 5 out of 5

Goole

Always best to stay at least 2 bricks as rule below damp may be able to break the drives back have drain in the middle falling away from the property

Answered11 June 2019