Gable end issue

Jojomissy

We purchased a house 18 months ago and due to the elevation high up and built into a hill we get severe weather especially with the winter such as last year.

The gable end is particularly vulnerable as it gets the worst of the weather. We commissioned an independent damp specialist who did a report suggesting debris in the cavity which we cleared but it is still the same. Ironically the rear of the house which is built into the ground on the ground floor is bone dry.

We have cleared the grid at the front corner which was full of crap but the front end of the gable is the most damp.

Here is a picture

https://ibb.co/cGUie8

Also next door seems to have had an issue and had courses of less porous brick put in. We do get much worse weather due to how we are elevated, here is next door. They did not have the work done so are unaware of previous issues.

https://ibb.co/gN8WXT

We are looking to remove the steps and landscaping the side area but need to fix this before the winter.

Any suggestions?

Many Thanks

Xx

Ectophile

Are those steps meant to be hard up against the side of the house? I would have thought that was an obvious place for damp ingress.


When I walk to work, I pass a house with a similar slope. They have built a garden wall a few inches away from the wall of the house, and put the steps up against that.

Jojomissy

This is how it was built in 1980 and the steps are original. My partner has lifted a couple of steps and they are a framework of bricks with a load of debris and flags on top. The bricks are very porous on the gable too.

We wish to take out the steps when landscaping but still need to protect from water ingress. The grass also gets very wet and biggy as there is a natural spring next door which they do not bother to unblock so overflows onto the grass. Also we have a bridle path to the top which develops a stream in the winter months which again can overflow onto the grass area.

As you can see it is complicated.

Xx

Furts

You need competent professional advice. Indeed you are likely to have guidance here. When you purchased the alarm bells were ringing loudly. Hence your full building survey and structural engineer should have flagged up the issues.

The steps are a text book example of illegal bodgery, the salts tell a story, the facebrick has warning signs. It is possible you cannot remove the steps without causing further problems.

Forum folks can say little, we can only see a simple snapshot. But if the builder was incapable of building garden steps what else is wrong with the two homes?

You have a complex issue of retaining,tanking,etc. Way beyond a consumer's ability

Jojomissy

We know where the tanking finishes and it is not breached. It is tanked to around the 3rd step and this seems to be where the issue is inside. We have 3 rooms in the basement which are bone dry.

As mentioned we commissioned a damp specialist who was not connected to any damp company and they said it was debris in cavity which we have cleared. I also asked about salts on the brickwork and they said it was just splashing from rain on the steps.

Also there was no staining on the bricks when we viewed so presume they had been cleaned off.

Is it worth replacing some of the brickwork with less porous brick like next door? Can we seal the rest of the gable end to give it some protection as we have noticed some of the corner bricks are deteriorating due to how exposed we are due to the elevation.

Thanks for your input.

Xx

Furts

Jojomissy wrote: »

We know where the tanking finishes and it is not breached. It is tanked to around the 3rd step and this seems to be where the issue is inside. We have 3 rooms in the basement which are bone dry.

As mentioned we commissioned a damp specialist who was not connected to any damp company and they said it was debris in cavity which we have cleared. I also asked about salts on the brickwork and they said it was just splashing from rain on the steps.

Also there was no staining on the bricks when we viewed so presume they had been cleaned off.

Is it worth replacing some of the brickwork with less porous brick like next door? Can we seal the rest of the gable end to give it some protection as we have noticed some of the corner bricks are deteriorating due to how exposed we are due to the elevation.

Thanks for your input.

Xx

There is not a definitive answer from this Forum. There cannot be because we do not know the facts. However there should be a holistic approach followed. An example would be ... spring at top of property diverted via catchpits and land drainage to... and all evidence to survey and back this. Thorough check and report. Ditto the spring at the side. Then diversion drainage around the home ditto...


The steps and detailing are a disaster area, so all this needs sorting. But there is an elephant in the room. It would be easy for you to dismiss my comments as nonsense. To this you have to face the obvious. Your "damp" surveyor has suggested blocked cavities. You say these are rectified, but the problem still exists.


Anybody viewing your home with an idea of purchasing would be putting an arbitrary contingency of £50K for repairs. They would then engage specialists, and professionals, for advice and reports. If you have purchased without detailed specialist professional advice (and you have not answered on this) then I suspect you have a huge liability to address.


Retaining, tanking, dpc, stepped dpc, joints, interfaces, ... all need analysis. This will not be a cheap, quick fix.

tacpot12

You can apply a silicone waterproofing liquid to the brick, this would help deal with the bricks being very porous. (The liquid allows water vapour to come out of the brick, but does not allow water to penetrate the brick). Unfortunately given the size of the gable, this is going to require scaffolding. You could also consider cladding. If there are properties in the neighbourhood with cladding, I would look to replicate this. For certainty - do both while the scaffold is up.

The steps need to come out. I think I would replace them with steps built in a similar fashion but away from the wall by 4 inches. Ideally in the gap you would have a smooth concrete ramp to drain the water downhill asap. You must dig down to the DPC and set the level of the ramp below the DPC. When reinstating the steps and doing the landscaping, you need to install drainage into the garden to carry away as much of the excess water as possible. Laying the new steps on a slight slant so that they fall away from the house will help.

Furts

The likely signs, are your neighbour had problems before you purchased. Over to you on when the work was done. However this is not a matter of replacing bricks. It looks like the steps were removed the wall rebuilt (probably in conjunction with tanking and dpc work) then the steps put back, albeit differently. Again nothing definitive can come from one photo . But if the neighbour's wall was like this when you purchased then all the more warning alarms were being sent to you 18 months ago. Regardless, back then what did the neighbour tell you when you were quizzing them about the histsory of defects with the homes?

Jojomissy

Hi tacpot

This method has been mentioned to us in conversation by a builder friend who did a good loft conversion in the past.

He suggested taking the steps away from the wall and pouring concrete like suggested. We also have a solution for taking water away on the opposite end of the garden. He also suggested protecting the brickwork by sealing it.

Just to say the only area we are having problems with is the very front corner so it is not damp throughout.

We did not have a structural survey, just the homebuyers which was a waste of over £500. Our builder friend had a good look over the property and we know where to add drainage now as we still have a French drain at the rear which we are replacing with an aico drain like the neighbouring properties.

There's was done under an insurance claim for flooding from the bridle path but apparently ours was the only property not to be affected ironically. The bridle path has now had work done by the council to prevent flooding.

We will now look to remove the steps and put in a concrete strip before rebuilding the steps before the winter.

I think 50k is a bit ott and if we do the work rather than trying to cover any damp along with reports this should help when we eventually sell.

We have amazing views which is part of the charm but this also gives us a fair share of weather to the property. We are extending the drive and landscaping so it made sense to tackle it at the same time.

Thanks again.

Xx

Furts

Two points to ponder. You refer to porous bricks - a somewhat strange concept since all bricks are porous. It justs means to what extent. Having class A or B means not much water gets past but these bricks have drawbacks. Which means houses get built with "porous" bricks because this works most of the time. You can apply silicone, but this is only a sticky plaster solution, and not a cure, Give it a while, and in your case a short while, and you will be doing this again. Then consider breathing - the silicone is said to be OK, but many claims are pure BS on breathing.


I suspect your bricks are perfectly adequate, it is the bricklaying and detailing which is poor. This is the typical scenario when folks have issues with walls..

Jojomissy

Hi furts

The stormdry product suggested is just to give some protection to the gable as it is very exposed and the brick racing's are getting damaged so we need to replaced several. This is not to cure the damp issue. It has been mentioned to us the the bricks are the more porous type which is not ideal due to the amount of weather it is exposed to, hence some protection.

We will be trying to help the problem with the steps by moving them away as suggested. We are in a 3 storey end townhouse on a very elevated position. There is 4 blocks but the other 3 blocks are much closer together.

We have a side garden and have a gap between hills where the wind and rain seems to hammer that side of the house. Difficult to explain but we slept in a loft conversion high up over the pennines in the last house and used to be woken by bad weather constantly but that was mild compared the weather we get here.

Hope that makes sense?

Xx