Please help, I have had a concrete disabled ramp that adjoins the house wall, running down the side and bridges the damp proof course made from my back door to the patio. I have a question about the damp membrane between the house wall and the ramp. Should this membrane go all the way up the side of the ramp to the top between that and the wall or only up the side of the ramp as far as the damp course on the house wall. I have been told by the builders it only needs to go as high as the course on the house wall but I am dubious, won't the damp rise up the concrete above that level. Also does anyone know what the building regs are regarding this installation? Thank you for any advice.
Hi I have just built a utility room at the back of our house. It is on a slightly sloping site so that the damp course at the rear where the outside door is ,is about 1 foot above the ground. My wife is disabled so I will be making a concrete platform a foot high about a three foot square with two ramps going off it. But all this concrete will not be above the damp course of the building. If it was like yours then it would have DPC at the adjoining edges right up to the top of the ramp otherwise damp will pass between the ramp and the wall of the building above DPC level. So you are right to be concerned.
Thank you for your reply, very helpful. The builder says that DPC only has to go up the side of the ramp as far as the DPC on the house according to building regulations. I really do have my doubts about that and will be querying it further but I do need some idea of what I am talking about. The cheeky thing is, he says if they come out to prove there is DPC to the level on the house i.e. take some concrete out it is chargeable. I am having a patio done too, so the man doing that is going to have to alter the end anyway, so we will see. I also have a platform with a double ramp, one down the side of the house, the other down the side of the conservatory where the DPC is much higher and not bridged. I only want the ramps as I am disabled too and want to be able to access the garden. I also think that they think I am stupid, being a female. They are wrong with that one.
Hi I have looked at the building regulations (just Googled ) regarding ramps and they seem just to cover gradients , handrails etc. not actual construction. I am just a DIYER and hopefully some professionals will come along later but it IMHO it is just common sense that a concrete ramp touching a house wall above its DPC would have a vertical DPC otherwise it would be like garden soil piled up above the damp course and this is a well known source of damp penetration. It might be an idea to put some photos on here. People like to be able to see the problem although you have explained it clearly.
Photos would only be of the finished product and I am unable to take them at the moment, sadly (can't get out the back as there is just soil at the moment) Do you think, if I rang our planning department I could speak to a Clerk of Works? Seems as if it is a bit of a grey area that builders translate as they wish. Good point about the soil, I did know that but hadn't associated it with this problem. Thank you very much for taking the time to reply, more food for thought.
If the concrete ramp is against the house wall then yes it does need a vertical dpc inbetween it and the wall.
**, yes we do have cavity wall complete with insulation. Phil the Paver, a very definite answer, thank you. I am now going to pursue this further with the builders who insist they are correct in saying vertical DPC only as far as the DPC on the house. In fact there are 4 more courses of bricks above our DPC to the top of the ramp and I don't want damp behind the kitchen units that won't become apparent until it starts smelling and then the damage will be done causing major repair work.
If it was a job I was doing then I would use DPM above damp course to separate to the 2, just out of interest how would the damp pass through the wall getting passed the concrete then through the cavity to the internal wall? B J
Depending on what type of cavity insulation is used, it could soak across, this is only going to happen on a very wet wall. Can't work out why the builder is taking that risk, just fit a vertical dpm and be done with it.
No idea unless it seeps through the cavity wall insulation. I am a novice at having building work done and possibly being over cautious. The thing is I am in doubt as to if any went in anywhere. I can't remember looking, wish I could but I have memory problems. The bit of concrete the garden chap has taken out to try and check is below the DPC and there is no sign of any there either. I won't say what a mess this builder made of the fitting of the floor joists and leaving just soil as a base instead of putting a membrane down and screeding it as we were told. It all had to be done again the best way possible under the circumstances, a good bodge job by someone else. You can understand why we are suspicious. We went to a supposedly reputable firm with decent reviews, assured that all workers were theirs, only to find, when the work started other than the plastic work, all were sub contractors
Fibre cavity wall insulation I think. It was blown in with a hue blower and there were bales of the stuff. Does that make a difference? See above post, I think they were the ones with the cheapest tender to the firm contracted to do the job. The brickie was very good but his boss kept ringing him saying he was taking too long. Then the boss sent his own brother out with the brickie then corners started to be cut. That is why we have the suspicions.
Perhaps one should ask that if you were to build out fron the house a new brick wall, would a vertical dpc be required? The answer is YES. Mr. HandyAndy - Really
Thank you all, you have given me the ammunition I need. Next port of call is the Clerk of Works. I am not accepting it and the company are not getting their final payment until it is sorted.
Update, the man laying the patio has removed all the concrete from the side of the house and there is no membrane at all, even up to the level of the DPC on the house plus they have blocked an airbrick with cement instead of venting it as I was told they would, which I thought was necessary. Now in contention with the builders, we have taken photos and the patio man has taken photos plus there is a totally independent witness who is not known to us but has done the conservatory electrics. Just wondering where to go from here other than getting something knocked off the price to cover the extra work done by the patio layer, which I will have to pay for.
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