BLU

iTrader: (27)

I need to know if something is acceptable on my new house. Its a problem with some external damp brickwork - I have opened up a dispute with NHBC (useless c**ts) and they say there is no defect and my problem is cosmetic, however I'm not convinced

dukeoffenland

I'm a architect mate do a bit of surveying Aswell

Have you got anything against the wall with damp ? Like a raised planter or an adjoining part of the house

Pics would be good

Aaron1978

iTrader: (12)

As above, pictures would be useful. External brickwork will get damp as (obviously) it'll get rained on. Is there some sort of patch/area appearing above your DPC? Do you have any weep holes in your brickwork, they will look like a plastic drain about 75mm high and around 10mm wide placed in the mortar joint. Could be that there is some sort of cavity tray and these weep holes are blocked. Who was the house builder and how old is the house (guessing less than 10yrs old).

BLU

iTrader: (27)

Yes there is a few patches above dpc. NHBC seem to think this is ok
Nothing against the wall.. The damp is on an external staircase - the DPC is in the form of cascade trays with a weep hole at the end of each one.

I'll pop pics up when photobucket is back up (site maintenance) as its difficult to explain without!!

Housebuilder is a local Welsh company, Anwyl. The house is only 23 months old, the damp has been there since day one and all the other houses of the same type seem to have the same problem

PaulC72

BLU, which direction is the wall facing? does it get any sunlight as sometimes hidden walls can stay wet.
Noting you mention Wales too, is it also something to do with the brick used as I have heard of people in Wales have issues (due to the wet weather ;-) ) due to the bricks they use.

classic Subaru Si

NHBC are a waste of time mate - I've a new build apartment and over the last 3 years, all the sash window frames have dropped by 4" - basically I have a 4" gap at the top of my window frames. Got NHBC and the builders round for a meeting, and they all said the same - wear and tear... Found out later that the NHBC are actually funded by the building trade, so it's no surprise who's side they are going to be on. P.S. sounds like penetrating damp, rather than rising damp, pics needed

BLU

iTrader: (27)

The wall is North facing but has a house 10 feet away and a dividing wall 3 foot away so no direct sun, but it gets no driving rain either!!
I suspect the rain which usually drives into the rear of the house is penetrating the wall, gathering in a all the crap at the bottom of the cavity, and bleeding up the bricks. They've taken three bricks out and cleaned the crap up and that helped, they then put the bricks back in and its bad again

Tell me about it, I asked him directly wether he thought damp four or so courses above dpc was acceptable, he paused, gave a wry smile and said "well its not ideal" Anwyl had removed two bricks previous so he inspected inside the cavity with an endoscope (very quickly I might add) He said the cavities were nice and clean. Thats because he looked at the part that had been cleaned out by the builder

Anyhoos pics, this is the right hand side of my house looking from the front. Rear ground level is two steps higher than the last visible step....

You can see directly where the steps join the house its damp and the rising damp at top and bottom. Non of this his dryed out in all that hot weather we had earlier on in the year btw! Also there is no damp anywhere else on the house

It is also the ONLY part of the house that doesn't have engineering bricks below the dpc





Inside the cavity looking at the cavity tray!



So do you think that water penetrating but not being able to escape is a defect, I certainly do.......

Aaron1978

iTrader: (12)

Those photo's suggest to me that the weep holes are blocked with mortar and as the damp seems to be below most of the weep holes, that to me also says that water is getting under the cavity tray. Can you get under the stairs to see how far the damp goes below? Those cavity's are a long way from what I'd call clean.

Also some of the brickwork is shocking and has clearly been done in bad weather, which would have lead to mortar becoming runny and then filling the weep holes and setting. Try taking a few weep holes out but away from each other as in, one at each end and one in the middle and see if that helps.

Have you thought about getting an external surveyor in? Usually they'll come and have a look and if they confirm there is something not done right etc, then they only charge you if you want them to write a report. Also don't take the NHBC inspectors say as final, go back to them and ask to take it further. I suspect that if it's across all those house types that it could become a costly exercise to put right for the house builder.

BLU

iTrader: (27)

Yup exactly my thoughts. I'm not going to leave the NHBC, they're gonna get me pestering even more tbh. Its nice to have an opinion from someone who has nothing to gain by telling me 'there isn't a problem'. Under the stairs isn't accessible, the stairs are laid on top of concrete foundations that are part of the ground, our garden is at the top of the stairs! The house wall is built on top of bituminised concrete slabs (that hold the ground up and stop water ingress in the rear basement rooms.
My neighbours brother-in-law is a surveyor, who said he'd look next time he's down this way, so thats my next step!

Ideally I'd like (i.e. the builder) to replace the bricks under the dpc/cascade trays down the stairs (f*cking pain in the a*se job!!) and replace with engineering bricks, that would stop the damp from ground level soaking into the brick and/or at the very least clean out the cavity trays and weep holes, I suspect this would sort the problem out!

If I can't get them to do it then its down to me to sort, but not without a fight!!

PaulC72

can they not just inject a new DPC?