Good advice wanted for covering concrete area (decking vs paving)

[Marc]

Hi,

I currently have about 3 metres of concrete at the back of my terraced house leading onto a grassed area (the concrete is about 20cm high). I wish to extend this by about one metre and cover the area to make it more attractive.

One option is decking. However im not sure i like the idea of maintaining it. I also think decking onto concrete may have drainage and issues around crap falling in the gaps that I cant get out.

Second choice is to extend the area wih more concrete, then lay paving stones directly onto the concrete.

can i lay paving on concrete and just put some dollops of mortar underneath?

Also, the concrete is currently very high (nearly door level) and im worried that adding paving may break some annoying DPC regulation.

Thoughts, ideas much appreciated

Thanks in advance,

Marc

[dennis]

Paving is supposed to be 150 mm below the DPC IIRC.

[Marc]

Thanks,

How do you tell where the DPC line is?

[Andy Hall]

If it's a house built before about 1900 then it may not have a DPC anyway. After that slate ones were used.

Either way, if the concrete is bridging the DPC or coming too high, then you are inviting damp problems. Quite often, "rising damp" turns out to be exactly as a result of this. People rather stupidly built up concrete paths over the years and put them right up to the wall.

More than likely, the original level is the grass and the concrete is bridging the DPC. Even if there isn't a DPC, the situation isn't healthy.

The first thing to do is to remove a strip of concrete 250-300mm wide down to the original level. More than likely, you will find the DPC one course of bricks down from the current concrete surface. The channel thus created can be filled part way with gravel.

Certainly if you add stones on top next to the house, you will be compounding the problem.

The issue here is not so much a regulatory one because realistically only a survey would pick it up; but rather that you have the risk of property damage.

[Andy Hall]

Generally it's 150mm or two brick courses or more above the surrounding ground as it was at the time the property was built. .The challenge on an older property is working out what the level was.

People tend to be lazy and just keep building more paths and so on on top of one another.

On older properties, slate was used and you can usually spot it in places.

[The Medway Handyman]

[Decking Hat On]

Decking doesn't need much maintenance at all, the odd clean & re oil. Stuff doesn't really fall through the gaps much, they are only around 8mm. Easiest way to cope with different levels.

DPC regulations aren't annoying, they exist to protect your property. Decking at a level above your DPC won't cause damp if the ledger plate is spaced away from the wall.