Thinking about doing some guttering and drainage improvements around my house

The slate damp proof course - is there a special approach to raking this out and repointing?

I'm just in the process of raking out the wall for repointing and not sure what to do about the dpc layer.
 
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Paint stripping and raking out of old mortar completed.

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I have broken airbrick and thinking to replace this double airbrick with just a single one instead. Is this easy to do?
 
Good work, satisfying isn’t it?

To answer your question, yes if you have the right tools (which are cheap).

Knock out the old mortar and brick, clean up the hole and mortar a new one back in.

This is one of those have a look at a couple of YouTube videos and go for it jobs.
 
b0rn2sk8 said:
Good work, satisfying isn’t it?

To answer your question, yes if you have the right tools (which are cheap).

Knock out the old mortar and brick, clean up the hole and mortar a new one back in.

This is one of those have a look at a couple of YouTube videos and go for it jobs.
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It doesn't look like they go all the way back through the wall, only a couple of inches.

Do you think I should replace it with a modern plastic one or get a reclaimed clay one?

Do you also agree that I should remove the one at ground level leaving myself with just a single airbrick?
 
Obviously after a check or two, I would only replace the airbrick that is higher than the other and either cement up or just replace the lower one with a brick.

The lower one is the reason I had to replace a whole floor years ago, due to the large amounts of rain we now get in short periods.

Plastic will be fine, if you are OK with how it looks.
 
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danlightbulb said:
Do you also agree that I should remove the one at ground level leaving myself with just a single airbrick?
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I would think that's fine. Replace the bottom one with a proper brick, and the top one with a plastic air brick.

The paint stripping and mortar work is looking great though - you should be proud of what you've achieved
 
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Ive taken up some of the haphazard old patio. There is an old solid concrete slab underneath.

I knew this existed from before when I was trying to level up my patio in 2023 (https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/highly-wiggly-patio-advice.18971687/)

I think I should be able to use this to my advantage as water will just run off it. Maybe some gravel edging around the house?


If laying a new patio I think I should be able to just bed on top of this concrete? No need to break it all out is there?
 
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Where is it running to and what’s stopping the water from pooling in the new well you’ve just created?

P.s. gravel on concrete is a recipe for a trip to A&E, it’s incredibly slippery.
 
b0rn2sk8 said:
Where is it running to and what’s stopping the water from pooling in the new well you’ve just created?

P.s. gravel on concrete is a recipe for a trip to A&E, it’s incredibly slippery.
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Here's an old photo from my previous patio thread so you can see the whole situation.

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There is old solid concrete patio under that patio at least 2-3m away from the house. It slopes away from the house (towards where Im standing to take the photo).

The slabs they have put down on the concrete slab are just laid on a thin layer of sand.
 
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I think the water will just pool if you lift any slabs, it will probably not be able to drain through the sand, certainly not quickly.

It’s also probably why your air bricks are so close to the ground level as it’s layered on the original concrete where as it probably should have been at the same level as the original concrete.
 
b0rn2sk8 said:
It’s also probably why your air bricks are so close to the ground level as it’s layered on the original concrete where as it probably should have been at the same level as the original concrete.
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Yeah agreed. However if I fit single brick airbricks instead of double (and switch to plastic ones which have greater airflow than clay ones), then I could keep the concrete base and lay new slabs directly on top. Ive seen some youtube stuff (albeit American) where they lay slabs directly on concrete with only construction adhesive.
 
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I can see how that would work, you’d need to make sure it was very flat otherwise you risk the slabs cracking.

If it’s not flat then a mortar bed would be better, it wouldn’t need to be thick and sandstone slabs are pretty thin also.
 
Can't comment on otherstuff. But main guttering floplast is decent in black uPVC and they have lots of different fitments.and adjustments, connectors .

I use floplast square guttering type, square downpipe tubes etc. Can be picked up from your local diy store pretty cheap . I got mine from bnq as there is one outside near my house.


Saying that I have only replaced the downstairs front porch guttering which leads to black plastic round drainage cover i replaced. Not done the top front and top rear of the house yet although the guttering is downstairs. Wanted to see if it's worth replacing the soffits and facias with UPVC or just get a good paint like bedec to paint the softits and facias before I remove old guttering from the top levels.
 
Good job.

I’d suggest a proper job to add to the list is to lift all your ground floor flooring and insulate between the joists.

Have a look at @dlockers thread for when he did his. It’s a big job but not difficult and well worth it.

If you have any pipework under there, heating, hot or cold water, lag the snot out of that also.
 
b0rn2sk8 said:
Good job.

I’d suggest a proper job to add to the list is to lift all your ground floor flooring and insulate between the joists.

Have a look at @dlockers thread for when he did his. It’s a big job but not difficult and well worth it.

If you have any pipework under there, heating, hot or cold water, lag the snot out of that also.
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Yeah definitely when I get to lift the dining room floor. There's a bad bounce in the floor so if you see in the picture it looks like a part of the middle support wall has collapsed which I'm thinking has left some joists hanging in thin air.

As it's so deep (4-5ft I reckon) I was wondering if I could do something more useful with it. A secret hatch into it maybe.
 
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