Removing or lowering decking & flower bed at same level as house

adocholiday

Hi all,

Something pointed out to me recently about our house is that a very small piece of decking outside (6.5m x 0.75m) is at the same level as some double doors and the floor inside. Similarly there's a flower bed whose base is against the house at the same level as the top of the plinth. I've been told that these could result in water/damp ingress so I'd like to remedy this. Funnily, the double doors at the deck and the window above the plinth are the only windows that seem to have persistent condensation so I guess there's some truth to this.

What I'd like to do is either remove or lower the decking, depending on the effort involved, and also dig out the small flower bed and just fill it in. My question is what should I put down to ensure that everything is watertight to prevent water/damp ingress?

For the deck I'm hoping that it's just sitting on top of a wooden frame which is sitting on a hardcore base that I could either drop by 3-4 inches or just completely dig out. Not overly attached to it. The flower bed is just soft soil easily dug out.

Would just putting down some membrane and covering with stones do the trick? I'm not so concerned about aesthetics for now, just want to make sure that whatever I do will be the right solution.

Purgative

Any chance of throwin up a few pix - might help the creative juices of the old and wise (I only include myself in the former).

Rows Grower

Remember the golden rule, water flows downhill.

adocholiday

I'll put up some pictures tomorrow when I have a bit of daylight to work with. Thanks!

adocholiday

Some images as requested. Sorry for the image quality, my phone camera is on the way out but should be enough to give you an idea.

https://i.imgur.com/yxSwZNy.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/lkJ85rX.jpg

Purgative

Thanks Adocholiday.



No expert not even a chancer, but I'd certainly remove them. Just opening them up to the air so the moisture is not held against your walls would be an improvement. It would also allow you to see if any damage has been done.


That may be enough.


All the best.

GreeBo

The decking probably isnt causing too much of an issue as it wont really hold water (it would be better if the bricks werent there as it would dry faster) but tbh I dont see that the decking serves any purpose, so I would remove it.

I would certainly remove the flower bed as it appears to be close to or even above the damp course, stick a planter box in instead if you want to have some colour outside.

adocholiday

Happy to remove both as suggested but what would I replace with? Would it be ok to dig out both to below the DPC, add hardcore and top with some stone for drainage? Do I need to put in any sort of membrane or flashing down as a precaution?

GreeBo

For the bed you can just dig it down to below the DPC and then grade the land away from the house, you shouldnt need to do anything else.

Whats under the decking? Again you shouldnt need to do anything other than remove it.

adocholiday

Ok that's good to know. Not sure what's under the decking, won't get a chance to pull it up until the weekend unfortunately. My suspicion is that there's just some hardcore that a few timbers are sitting on, forming the base for the deck so should be easy to dig out. But knowing my luck it's probably solid concrete :P

daheff

adocholiday wrote: »

Happy to remove both as suggested but what would I replace with?

for the decking, if you dont' want decking, you could add paving slabs/cobble lock instead (keep the height). make a nice step up to the door?