Chemical damp proof course above my floor joists?

tomsidebottom

In our new house, 2 surveys (1 more damp specialised) said we had ground floor damp on the front & rear walls - and a little down the side ones.

We've had a chemical damp proof course done now, but I'm unsure about its height. Basically, the DPC level is level with the floor boards. On the front wall there is a set of larger rectangular holes below the DPC - more spaced out - which I'm guessing are where the floor joists sit (some kind of foam in these holes hides whether this is definitely true).

Either way, the floor joists MUST be below the DPC, which seems backwards as it leaves the floor joists unprotected from any rising damp.

I can only guess that they did this because on the side wall the adjacent driveway is quite high, and I read that DPCs need to be a minimum height above ground level. So the high driveway could have dictated the minimum level - which is higher than desired. Even if this was the case, I would have liked to have been told about it.

If the driveway (concrete?) IS too high, should I think about taking it out and lowering the it?

Any thoughts would be much appreciated.