Thinking about doing some guttering and drainage improvements around my house

[danlightbulb]

Hi all.

Since I moved into this house I've been meaning to investigate the arrangements for guttering and drainage around my house as it's a bit all over the place.

I need to get the guttering replaced anyway as some of it is leaking, but also it doesn't seem to function very well. There are areas where the fall doesn't work well, a lot of corners, and not enough downpipes.

Around the bottom of the house im unclear where the drainage actually is. There is a soil stack and gulley at the back corner of the house, and all the guttering, bath and sink wastes and kitchen wastes flow into this one gulley through a quite messy arrangement of piping.

Some houses on the street have a front gulley, and mine indeed has a hole where a gulley should be, but the downpipe into it has been removed. There's also a front acco drain to catch water off the driveway but it's not clear where this goes either.

I'm not really sure how to proceed in finding out where some of these drains go and what I can do to improve things. I'm not sure what type of tradesperson I would need to contact to try to figure things out.

I can post some photos of various aspects of it if it helps to get advice. What would it be useful for me to take photos of to help visualise things?

Thanks.

 

[danlightbulb]

Thanks I'll look into that.

It's not just the drains though. It's the whole perimeter of the house. For example I have subfloor air bricks that are exactly at the level of the surrounding ground outside.

I'll create a list of all my concerns with a photo of each one and post it here for thoughts.

 

[danlightbulb]

Here's the situation down my side entry where all the drains and guttering goes.

Its just a mess and I want to tidy it all up. The wall in the picture is the kitchen wall and it's been hacked at so badly over the decades it's full of patchwork mortar repairs. It needs bricks replacing in it.

The gulley area is a mess too as you can see.

 

[danlightbulb]

Here are photos of a number of low level air bricks. There's quite a lot of them all round the house but as you can see most are at ground level or even below ground level.

 

[danlightbulb]

I want to get this small window bricked up. It's already been covered over from the inside with boarding and kitchen units but the lazy retards left the old window in on the outside.

There's yet another airbrick at high level (in total the small kitchen has three air bricks in various places it's ridiculous.

 

[danlightbulb]

Main foul pipe looks ok. Not much you can do unless you want to get excavator out. Just renew for fresh plastic that's matching?

Yeah the main poo pipe is ok now I've repaired the base. If I redo the bathroom I'd get it removed then probably and swap for plastic.

It's everything else that needs work but not sure where to start.

 

[danlightbulb]

Many properties are served by separate foul water and rain water drains, the latter often discharging in to natural water courses so it’s important you’re not discharging sinks, baths, etc. in to these rainwater drains and equally rain water in to the foul sewer which can flood them in heavy storms.

Does it look like your property could be served by separate drains? Your local water board/company may be able to advise too.

No it's an old house it's got a single combined sewer.

 

[danlightbulb]

You could cut the cast iron off near the bottom and slide a plastic one in. Then boss it and get rid of that long ugly run. The other two sink pipes can boss in as well. Then your gutter drain can just be a straight pipe.

I think it would be a good idea to get rid of the cast iron, if Im going to cut half of it I may as well get the lot done. I don't know how much damage it will do to where it comes out through the wall though from the bathroom. I'd have to get someone to come in and remove the toilet and do that work, I don't want to try it myself.

 

[danlightbulb]

What do I do about this mess:



Break it all out at ground level?

 

[danlightbulb]

The net benefit to you is negligible/nothing. Just close your eyes and ignore it. At least colour code everything, but don't but yourself into big bills territory for something few people would care about. Only change the soil stack if doing the bedroom.

No the issue though is that the brickwork is also in a poor state especially the corner of the house at ground level. I need to get some brick replacement done, but if Im doing that then I would also need to re-work the gulley area as its a mess. I want to repoint that whole side of the house as well but again would need brickwork repairs done first and the mess of pipework tidied up first.

 

[danlightbulb]

Your air brick problem will only be solved by lowering the drive. The one that is properly at ground level, I'd be tempted to mortar up the bottom row.

Im not sure what has happened here really as the ground level round our house is pretty level with the ground level of the neighbour's house yet the block paving that has been laid covers up loads of the airbricks halfway. If I remove it and fit it lower, then I will create a lower area that would fill with water when it rains?

It may have to be one job for it to be proper.

0. Extend drain if required (I wouldn't bother - it's kicked out like it is to avoid the window, and the longer gulley gives you somewhere to tip buckets out without making a mess ).

1. Remove all pipework - create a dLockers special (or use proper temporary gutters: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/15433379...:51cdfc9a49ea17c6d26d9a5ed94d7f76;pt:1;choc:2)

2. Re-point

3. Re-fit new pipework.

Yes, but specifically on that kerbstone bit around the gulley - what do I need to do there?

 

[danlightbulb]

No expert here but it would involve removing the kerbstones and redoing that slabbed area so that it all runs towards the train.

Id like to have got rid of those slabs and put something nicer down but its a shared access and the house next door is rented so I don't want to spend too much at this stage.

You're probably right it was done to prevent knocks or to bed in the original pipe I guess which was probably metal. It is tight to get down there with the green bin.

 

[danlightbulb]

Things have taken a turn. The brickwork is far worse than I realised. Gonna have to get that corner rebuilt from below ground level up at least 5/6 courses, and a few feet in either direction out from the corner.

Spoke to a builder today and sent across some pictures, waiting for a price. Anyone had anything like this done before please?

 

[danlightbulb]

Why? Looks like the brickwork just needs repointing.

Maybe it looks worse in the flesh because the brickwork is all over the place. Huge gaps, a bulge in the wall, large areas where there is no brick at all and just a hole filled in with mortar.

 

[danlightbulb]

Fair enough, only problem is tying in new stuff getting it to match existing is always a challenge!

Im more worried about the corner collapsing than a few non-matching bricks.

People over on DIYnot are also saying it just looks like pointing needed.

Im still not convinced though. If I can get my hand under a whole brick (and I have no idea how far back or deep that void goes) then I'm concerned it still would be better to get new engineering bricks put into the corner. I'll see what estimate the builders I have contacted come back with.


In the meantime I need to buy an angle grinder and some pointing tools.

 

[danlightbulb]

I'll stick some more photos on tomorrow when I'm back home, but I've been trying to remove that white paint on the wall. It's coming off slowly. Some of the mortar is just crumbling away.

The worst bricks are near ground level.

I did call up my buildings insurance to see if I could make a claim there and they sent a surveyor round. Can't claim, but he did say that a full repointing job on the area would be enough, maybe switch a few of the worst bricks out. And that removing the paint is the right thing to do.

I've had a quote from a brickie as well, £1k 3 days to do some brick replacement and restoration on the area.

 

[danlightbulb]

Bag of cement, bag of sand, chisel, mortar rake, trowel, hawk and finishing tool. Watering can and jug if you don't have one.
<£100.
I'd certainly give that a DIY

Sure but that doesn't replace bad bricks. I'll stick some more photos on tomorrow.

 

[danlightbulb]

Youre overthinking this. Have a go at repointing one or two and see how you get on.

Maybe but isn't it better to do the job well? The mess of DIY /poor repointing over decades is why the wall is so deteriorated.

 

[danlightbulb]

I can't see any bad bricks there - they all have their faces, and looks to be very few that have any edge/corner damage either

There are only a few that have damage and yeah I could just stuff some mortar in the voids and repoint up the rest.

But I'm concerned that is just a temporary fix. The house is nearly 100 years old, I don't think it's a bad thing to be thinking about some good quality repairs.

This corner brick has some face damage and is right below the dpc. There's some kind of foam mortar stuffed in the dpc joint.

This is the bottom course right at ground level which I'm worried is compromising the whole wall. It's been eroded by water which wasn't running away from the house. Also that airbrick has been replaced by the looks of it and is a poor job.

This brick has been hacked at to run an outside cable through.

These areas have been patched up where pipes have been through the wall previously.

And this is the bottom corner again you can see how eroded the bottom corner is.

Quality above poor here are better quality hopefully.

 

[danlightbulb]

Plus I'm also having this old window bricked up.

Not a job I'm good enough to do myself.

That doesn't seem bad value for £1k to me. Yeah I could get away with a lesser job/quick fix but then I'd be as bad as the ones who have bodged it in the past leaving this mess today.

There's also the time element to think about. The brickie will have this all done in 3 days it would probably take me 3 whole weekends.