Wet bricks under front door - do we need to investigate or worry?

k1rkyc

FreeBear said:

GDB2222 said:

Can you put a bead of silicone on the underside of the sill, so the water drips off away from the brickwork.

I assume that there’s no drip groove?

There is already a drip bead molded in to the uPVC cill  - If you look at the photos, you can just about see it. So no need to put s bead of silicone on.

I suspect the wind is blowing around in that space, picking up water dripping from the cills, and blowing it back on to the brickwork. As it is only the bottom three courses that are damp, it shows the DPC is ding its job.

Another possibility is the tarmac slopes towards the building and rain water is pooling at the base of the wall - In which case, a narrow gravel filled trench up against the wall should stop the water pooling. The trench need only be ~150mm wide and deep enough to get below any tarmac/concrete.

Thanks for the response. The drive doesn’t really slope downwards towards the house. I also can’t understand why it’s like this in the summer though when we’ve had no rain for 3-4 weeks?!

GDB2222

Could you have a tiny spring coming up under the house?

plumb1_2

GDB2222 said:

Could you have a tiny spring coming up under the house?

Maybe similar to Peckham spring.

k1rkyc

GDB2222 said:

Could you have a tiny spring coming up under the house?

No idea…. I guess anything is possible?!

Eldi_Dos

@kirkyc, Hi not a builder just a layman but hope these pointers help you get to the root of the problem.

1: Any gutters above wall in picture and are they in good condition and clear.
    Unlikely to be cause as you say wall is wet after a period with no rain, but always a good thing to check regularly.

 2: Is it a wooden floor in that room and if it is can you look underneath, pay particular attention to wallplates and their condition.

3: As wall is wet after weeks with no rain I suspect a leak of waterpipe or partial blockage of a drain. The water could be getting held under the tarmac and wall is drawing it out in a capillary action.
  You can get a listening stick to try and locate if you think there might be a leak under there, but beware where a leak is and were water appears can be some distance apart.

4: Are there any trees nearby whose roots could have got in and partially blocked a drain.

5: It would be a good idea to get a professional to put in a drain between tarmac and wall after you have eliminated other possible causes.

GDB2222

I think Stuart more or less suggested drilling a hole through the outer leaf of bricks to see whether any water is trapped inside.

Eldi_Dos

Looking at photo again I think a check of water pipes  around area of meter box would be worth doing.

stuart45

k1rkyc said:

Thanks Stuart. Does this mean we shouldn’t be worried?! We’ve not seen any other house in our village like this?

I'd probably try to find out the cause. You might find the brickwork starts to spall in time with the freeze/thaw effect in winter.