Brickwork steps and the damp-proof course

[Jimk]

You could incorporate a vertical plastic dpc between the back of the steps & the house wall to go down past the house dpc?

[Jimk]

Still true today.

[Jimk]

You mentioned there's only 2 courses of brick that the steps would be above the house dpc, so if you want to tie it in, do it further down & just incorporate the dpc for the top say 3 courses (with no punctures).

[Jimk]

How many courses above the house dpc?

[Bert Coules]

If brickwork-sided steps are tied to the house and extend from outside ground level to above the damp-proof course, do they have to incorporate a corresponding damp-proof course of their own? Thanks.

[The Natural Philosopher]

yes

[Brian Gaff (Sofa 2)]

mine don't seem to have one, built in39. However there is not a very wide damp course on this single skin walled house. I know that is no answer, but is how it is. Brian

[Bert Coules]

Two, I believe. The front door steps, don't appear to have any sort of damp-proof provision.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Concrete loaded with PVA is pretty damp proof. Only bricks/plaster really suck up water

[Bert Coules]

The front steps are brick-sided with slabs for treads and are, I believe, filled with concrete.

[The Natural Philosopher]

should be DPed then, but you can generally get away with a small bridge

[Bert Coules]

How would I attach the brickwork of the steps to the brickwork of the house, though? It would be OK below the dpc but surely above it, any physical connection such as conventional brick ties would have to penetrate the vertical plastic sheet.

[Chris Hogg]

If the foundations for the steps are well prepared and solid enough then the steps are not going to settle, and the brickwork won't come away from the house wall.

I had a similar situation when building the end wall of a log-store at right-angles to the house wall - it extended above the dpc of the house, so I just ran a strip of dpc up the house wall so that there was no path for the damp to rise up and bypass the house dpc.

[Bert Coules]

Right.

That does seem to be an elegant, as well as a simple, solution. Thanks.

[tabbypurr]

which is no big deal. Reality is houses with no dpc seldom suffer from it. DPC is more like an insurance policy, you're unlikely to ever need it.

NT

[Bert Coules]

Interesting, thanks.

[Bert Coules]

Yes, that makes sense. Thanks.

[alan_m]

Is that why inside damp is commonly caused by people bridging the DPC when they pile up earth on the outside wall or bridge it by concreting over their gardens for a car parking etc.?

[The Natural Philosopher]

Totally wrong. I tore down a house with no DPC and it had rising damp everywhere that had rotted the timber frame to the point of being unsafe to live in.

Even though the outer plinth had been injected, the internal spine walls and chimney stack had not, and floorboards could be pressed to release liquid water near them. Efflorescence on the plasterwork near the chimney and on all the spine walls showed severe damp up to 18 inches above the lake that lived under the house after it rained.

As usual the armchair expert has never met with real life.

[The Natural Philosopher]

No, that's why tabbypurr is in my killfile.