Thinking about doing some guttering and drainage improvements around my house

danlightbulb said:
Yes, but specifically on that kerbstone bit around the gulley - what do I need to do there?
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No expert here but it would involve removing the kerbstones and redoing that slabbed area so that it all runs towards the train.

TBH, the kerbstone may be thre to both protect the pipe from being struck with stuff being brought around and also to act as a reservoir in case of the drain not coping with heavy water flow so that it holds it until it can drain away down the drain
 
Richie said:
No expert here but it would involve removing the kerbstones and redoing that slabbed area so that it all runs towards the train.
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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.
 
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?

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Buffman said:
Fair enough, only problem is tying in new stuff getting it to match existing is always a challenge!
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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.
 
Agree with the repointing - it would do no harm to give it a try; worst case it's pulled out and rebuilt again. The bricks themselves seem OK. Are any crumbling etc.? What age is the house? It might need lime mortar and it does look like someone has been doing some pointing in the past...

Your air bricks are curious, they have been replaced I'd say (older ones are a brick size usually). More importantly, have you located the DPC - this should be 150mm above ground level...one of my places this is exactly what had been done and the air bricks on the floor had let years of water in = the whole kitchen floor was destroyed including joists etc. so I had to rip it all out. Worse the clowns had been in there because I found a piece of wickes timber propped agaisnt a joist (they hadn't even bothered screwing it to the joist!).
 
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 said:
In the meantime I need to buy an angle grinder and some pointing tools.
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You don't need an angle grinder for that

danlightbulb said:
I've had a quote from a brickie as well, £1k 3 days to do some brick replacement and restoration on the area.
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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
 
danlightbulb said:
Sure but that doesn't replace bad bricks. I'll stick some more photos on tomorrow.
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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.


danlightbulb said:
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.
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Honestly if that's your view then just pay someone, but given how small of a job it seems from the pictures there's no wonder why builders etc are so keen to rub their hands together for jobs like these.
 
Armageus said:
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
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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.
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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.
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This brick has been hacked at to run an outside cable through.
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These areas have been patched up where pipes have been through the wall previously.
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And this is the bottom corner again you can see how eroded the bottom corner is.
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Quality above poor here are better quality hopefully.

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

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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.
 
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dlockers said:
You are getting it ALL done and repointed for a grand?
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Not repointing the entire wall no but replacing bricks in the corner and repointing that area, and replacing bricks where the pipes have been put through, and bricking up the window. He has allowed 3 days work plus materials so I guess it will be however much he can get done in 3 days which for a proper brickie should be quite a bit?

The repointing needs doing on the whole house but once this corner is repaired then there is less urgency and I can work on it a bit at a time.

Someone else is coming to quote tomorrow so I'll get a comparison price and other opinion on scope then.
 
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