Leaking Air Bricks Below Ground Level?
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- Опубликовано: 8 янв 2024
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The Essential Role of Air Bricks and the Risks of Improper Placement
Air bricks, an integral component of building architecture, are crucial in maintaining a healthy living environment. However, their effectiveness is significantly influenced by their placement. This article explores the purpose of air bricks and the potential dangers associated with positioning them too low.
Understanding Air Bricks
Air bricks, typically made from terracotta or plastic, are incorporated into the structure of buildings to facilitate ventilation. These bricks, easily identifiable by their perforated design, allow air to circulate beneath floors and within cavity walls, preventing moisture buildup. This airflow is vital in combating dampness, a common enemy of structural integrity and indoor air quality.
The Importance of Proper Ventilation
The primary function of air bricks is to ensure a constant flow of air, particularly in spaces prone to dampness, like basements, crawl spaces, and wall cavities. These areas can become breeding grounds for mould and mildew without adequate ventilation, leading to potential health risks such as respiratory problems and allergic reactions. Additionally, trapped moisture can lead to wood rot and structural damage, jeopardizing the building's integrity.
The Risks of Low Placement
While the benefits of air bricks are undeniable, their placement is a matter of critical importance. One common mistake in installing air bricks is placing them too low to the ground. This seemingly minor error can lead to significant issues.
Flooding Vulnerability: Air bricks placed too close to the ground are more susceptible to flooding, especially during heavy rainfall. Water ingress through these openings can lead to interior damage, including damp walls, ruined floorboards, and compromised electrical systems.
Blocked Ventilation: Low-placed air bricks are at a higher risk of being obstructed by debris, soil buildup, or garden materials. Blocked air bricks fail to provide the necessary ventilation, leading to the very moisture-related issues they are meant to prevent.
Pest Intrusion: When positioned too low, air bricks may also become access points for pests such as rodents and insects, who can easily infiltrate the building's interior, causing hygiene issues and potential damage.
Solutions and Preventative Measures
To mitigate these risks, several strategies can be employed:
Elevated Installation: Ensure that air bricks are installed at a safe height above the ground level, considering the area's typical rainfall and potential flooding scenarios.
Regular Maintenance: Regular inspection and cleaning of air bricks can prevent blockages, ensuring continuous airflow.
Protective Measures: Installing well-designed covers or grilles can prevent water ingress and pest entry while allowing air to circulate freely.
Professional Assessment: Consulting with construction experts or architects when installing air bricks can provide insights into the optimal placement tailored to specific environmental conditions.
Air bricks are essential in maintaining the structural health of buildings and ensuring a safe, moisture-free environment. While their benefits are manifold, the potential dangers of incorrect placement, particularly placing them too low, cannot be overlooked. Through mindful installation and maintenance, these risks can be effectively managed, safeguarding the longevity and integrity of our living spaces.
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#damp #brickwork #mould
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Not sure that the house builder is the problem, I suspect someone has raised the patio at a later date at some point. The DPC should be at least 150mm above ground level. It’s about an inch below ground level, so going to get damp issues there for sure.
Can see here 1:53 the patio is at the same level as the internal floor and door steps. 🤦🏻♂️
The problem is not the air bricks, it’s the patio.
99.9% this. The ground level has been raised relative to the air brick and DPC and is too high. Not only is the airbrick compromised but splashing and any flooding will pour over the DPC. I'm surprised Roger hasn't spotted this. The proper solution is remove the patoi, dig down and re-do. Resolving the airbrick will only be fixing half the issue.
@@wings9925it probably would be the right fix, but that slab on the right hand side of the drain ( 1:24 ) looks like it might even be bridging the DPC?
I think I'd dig it all out like they've done around the air brick.
@@wings9925
Yes, I’ve said this in another comment. The problem is the DPC is bridged, nothing to do with the air bricks and moisture under the floor. Raising the air bricks will solve nothing. Just hope the house owner is reading these comments😅
@@ricos1497
The DPC is laid on top of the air brick 1 inch below ground level. Rodger points the DPC out here 0:40
I don't think there's anything wrong with the house build - someone naughty has just built a raised patio and built up over the bricks & dpc too? Look at the grey concrete on the right of the house - it looks original and lower than the patio?
And u can tell it was certainly done after the house build as they boxed in the vents with blocks laid within the patio. No house builder would have done that crap.
There is an outside tap at 6:29 above a paving slab. I think the patio is too high to the damp proof course.
Bit surprised a suggestion to lower the "patio" was not made.
I agree, amazed really Roger missed this. The patio is sitting at DPC level which is a huge problem to begin with and probably the main cause at play here.
Schoolboy error 😅 simple dpc regs broken DIY enthusiast
People are saying the patio is too high, they are right.... but! A new build estate near me the pavement level was higher than the air bricks.
This is a peoblem with greedy mass house builders just copy pasting houses without a care.........
The patio is bridging the DPC and causing rising damp, simple as. Nothing to do with moisture under the floor, the air bricks are not blocked
Yep, hard to tell from the photos, but looks like it is, certainly to the right of the drain.
But water fills well over air bricks n takes ages to go down as garden along these houses are soaked not anoth drainage
Nothing has changed in 26 yrs , and she’s very clean that green she would clean off regular with patio cleaner , but she had to clean mold in house n repaint all summer not realising the air bricks were the problem as such , but maybe all water from kitchen 5 month leak n water meet up n made all mold worse ? Who nos
@@user-or8gh6ct2d
Like I said to you in the thread of my other comment Alison (not sure whether you’ve seen it or not?)
The DPC must be over 150mm above ground level, this is NOT optional it’s building regulations. Dropping it 1-2 inch is not good enough. They must be got back to do the job properly.
Call them again and call the building inspector too and ask them both to meet you together. (Though not sure the building inspector covers council housing but give them a try anyway.)
If they argue, tell them you want re-housing as the property is not habitable.
You’ve got to put your foot down Alison. The law is on your side 100%. As a tenant and with building regs.
It maybe a good idea going seeing citizens advice to get some free legal advise and ask them to help with writing a formal letter to housing demanding action to be taken.
Hope that helps, all the best. Lee
@@user-or8gh6ct2d
If the patio is dropped below the air bricks the water shouldn’t collect, it should run off elsewhere.
Wish I could see round the side and front of the property to be honest so I can see where the water could flow.
Which borough are you in?
I'm looking at that clip the patio the outside ground is too high it needs to be the brick below the airbrick I'll get a digger and dig a trench at 6" wide one brick below the airbrick all the way around sloping away to vanishing point. You can see the cement pointing is above the damp proof cause
yes needs a proper wide drain around the building and make sue the drains are clear and the downpipes fixed and not leaking.
Just put the telescope vents on the outside. I have used 22mm pipes made into snorkels no more water.The house dried out .That was 8 years ago still working.
The true DPC looks to be one brick higher than the top of the air brick (time index 1.05). I’m no expert but it looks like there are more than one problems here. The aftermarket patio, and two arising problems. One, bridging the DPC, and two, the air brick problem.
As Rodger said at the start, more photographs are always helpful - a few wider views would unpick the whole problem I expect.
I was literally just about to comment on the DPC looking to be 1 brick above the air vent, this calls for a proper solution that will involve time & digging!
love the melancholic music at the end!! 😄
Thanks so much for your response. There is a flap already. Might have to move the vent?😢
Roger looks soooo lonely on his own in that HUGE studio. 😢 Can Skillbuilder not cut and paste a few friends for him?! 🤷♂️
Not even virtual friends can put up with him. The grumpy old git
Bought our current 1930s semi in 2013. Lifted the laminate flooring. Wooof! The green felt underlay squares were black with fungal spores. Choking. Cleared it all out. Looked under floorboards... sopping wet. Removed floorboards, cleared rubble from walls knocked down for through lounge, found a puddle where the lead water supply pipe emerged vertically inside the front door area - not a leaky pipe but high water table. That and the driveway had about four layers from original to a more recent brick block paving that started level with the pavement and sloped down to finish flush with the dpc! Nearly 2 grabaways of material got down well below the dpc. Dug and set up a French drain across front of the property. Dug down to the lead pipe to replace with wider bore plastic. Relaid a driveway sloping from pavement to two courses below dpc with a channel drain above the French drain. All bone dry in the 3-feet high void under the original house. Not a trace of mould or spores. With no plastic sheet under the mixed depth rough concrete on the bottom of the void, we do get some white fibres of salts. Interlocking garage rubberised plastic floor tiles makes it a pleasure to push a trolley with Really Useful storage boxes and work on pipes and wires. Even the plumbers and electricians have said how nice it is to work down there. A lot of effort but worth every muscle strained and penny spent.
But why did previous owners lay a drive like the one we inherited and why would some previous owner of that house have such absurd raised path? Then we saw some new near neighbours get a no-skill 'builder' to do something similar to a house they were living in and intended to live in. If we had left our new driveway as it was, there would have been a big step up to the front door, as with all our neighbours. So we made three very wide steps so frail folk could take them one step at a time and the rise of each step is just 100mm. With the slope down to the steps from the pavement, the natural movement is almost horizontal. Everyone loves it. Astonishing how many people just don't think about such things. We didn't have building experience when we started but we just applied a bit of thought.
I recon there's a leaky tap the the right of the down pipe (6:30). There are water stains below it to right of the gulley, and bridging of DPC due to paving being too high. There is likely internal cavity bridging too, due to wet insulation.
No tap was never fitted in end it was put side house ,
Whats the rope for?
Damp problems seem to be the biggest problem I come across. It’s quite a complicated subject. From leaks, to condensation, chimney salts, mould, dpc’s, ventilation…. I get it right most of the time, but there are times when it’s really quite difficult to work it out. Sometimes you might spend a couple of hours rectifying the obvious, but it still persists.
Stormdry is great stuff. I put it on my garage wall when I was getting damp on the inside of the wall. Hardly any damp gets through now, even after terrible driving rain. I just wish it wasn’t so expensive to buy. I did the work about 4 years ago and the 5 litres of stormdry was over £100 then....
What the people done in house was put up lean toos along bk of house to help get water away from house 20 yrs ago , so for 6 yrs was open ,she didn’t realise that was the problem until last yr ,as she’s not a house surveyor, but she can’t get no help from people that own house ,
@@user-or8gh6ct2d I don’t know how your comment relates to mine. I’m talking about stormdry Bering good, but very expensive.
Outer levels have been raised causing much of the problem also I think that you may be a bit out with your estimated couple of days work to chop out the brickwork , install vents and make good but maybe I'm a slow worker...
Looks to me like the patio was raised to meet the door threshold (breaching dampproof course) instead of creating a step down to a ground level patio. If it were mine, I would strip off the whole patio layer to lower it, and have a step down to a the re-layed patio. Or if needing the indoor & outdoor levels to be the same (maybe for child safety, prams or wheelchair users) then maybe replace (raised) paved patio with raised decking, which would allow airflow beneath.
Internal mould is from a bridged cavity, very likely uncleaned cavity from brickies. Vents are supposed to be under dpc, not above - as per building regs. External levels have been retro fitted level to damp, hence the wicking effect.
Cavity air bricks have to below the DPC, including telescopic ones otherwise they bridge the DPC course, those in the pictures could only have come up one course at the most. The path levels around the house are far too high in comparison to the DPC course, hence the attempts to protect the air bricks with the edging stones, which will also be helping to stop air flow into the airbricks. Retro fitted Cavity wall insulation is very good at falling below the DPC level and then bridging the DPC as well. The only way to really stop the problems is the lowering of the external path levels to at least one course of bricks below the bottom edge of the airbricks. The green mould to the brickwork above the DPC course is behind a guttering downpipe and has probably been caused by the down pipe being blocked somewhere above wherever the green mould to the bricks stop with water then backing back up to the gutter and then overspilling and running down the brick work either from the top or a badly sealed joint. As it looks a reasonably new property it has probably fallen victim to one of the worst afflictions of the modern era of mass produced housing by companies interested in profit only. That affliction? A site manager who doesn't know his arse from his elbow, in the trade they are also known as fuckwits
The whole point of the telescopic air brick was to bypass the DPC without comprising it's ability to do it's job, and to ensure the outside air brick to a suspended floor is above the DPC. The DPC is the datum point at which the ground level should be a minimum of 150 mm below accept in one circumstance where one entrance to a house being built today has to have wheelchair access. Something that I am not so keen on myself.
If you put the air brick below the DPC then you are more likely to get water ingress which will exacerbate the problem of damp within the property.
@@Frenchwine15 no its not
Look the drain has been raise up to be level with the patio.
Aah Dylan, great job there at the end :D :D
What's a good way to evaporate if the problem we have is isn't a low brick air gap but something else.
I've been under the house and there isn't a membrane... its wet soil and a few puddles... even found some roots growing under there too
I was gonna get a heater under the house to do it that way... is that a good idea?
Cheers Rog
- C
You won't dry it out if more water is coming in. You need some 1000 guage polythene sheeting over the whole area to keep the moisture on the earth side. Try to get it lapped up the walls so it holds the moisture in. The airbricks will then cope with the residual that finds its way up.
We've got something similar. We live in a 1930's property and I can see an air brick round the side of the house has dipped below ground level and on the other side of the wall I can see where the floor has dipped
Where has that water to the right of the rain water come from?
Patio slabs are too high. Dig out & relay
I could be wrong but in 1 photo it looks like the DPC may only be 1 brick above the air brick? If so I think some digging is required!
I bought a property where the ground on my gable end had been raised above my DPC, which unfortunately was my neighbours path & caused a bit of a dispute.
In the end as I couldn't just dig away my neighbours path so I ended up getting them to allow me to dig a thin 100mm trench along my wall down bellow my DPC (horrible job), placing a studded DPM against my wall, put a 60mm land drain in the bottom of the trench that drained to a safe area, back filled the thin trench with gravel & then fixed a fascia board with the nib cut down to my wall (acting a bit like a skirting board) to overlap & hold in place the studded DPM that was above ground.
In my case stopped damp pouring in.
I think the ground levels are an issue but with level access requirements you see a lot of it
@@SkillBuilder Last time I looked (years back) it said your finished ground level should be minimum 150mm below your DPC to allow for rain splash etc. In my case my wall was solid brick with no cavity so the water was practically pouring through until I dug the trench & installed the DPM & land drain but it's been dry as a bone since 👍
Hi I have installed a new plastic air vent in the bedroom. Every time I enter the room I get dust and debis in my eyes! It's a nightmare what can I do pls?
You need a back draught flap on it but that will be noisy at night so you might also need a hit and miss on the vent so you can close it when it is windy.
External ground level is too high by about 150mm
the air brick should be the course below dpc, but the level thresholds negate that because you can't have 150mm below dpc if you want a level threshold.
either way that vent is too low
Please can you recommend a builder to put floor in kitchen, plaster 2 bed terrace house and put heating in .. I had nightmare done by builders who walked away and left me stranded. I live in Poole. Don't know who to trust ..so worried
Interesting thing is that if that cottage was to be recreated in the USA it would be incredibly expensive.
Particularly the patina of age. Hahaha.
The mass produced materials from ealier times in the UK would be expensive in the USA for a start.
😊😊😊😊
Yep ground level is clearly to high patio is level with the floor inside
level threshold from the builders of the homes
@@SkillBuilder If that were the case, other homes would be similarly effected. I strongly suspect if you lift some of those slabs, you will find the original patio - laid at the correct level.......................
Over neibours airbricks are higher only 1 brick higher , that 1 air brick by pipe fills right up over the top when rains hard ,
There are 3 air bricks at bk of that house , and stones all along house , the stones for drainage wereabove both black membtains , the housing where told many many times , that skirting boards wet carpets damp etc etc , they had house newly built 26 yrs ago , 2 wks of Ty hem moving in the lounge flooded with brand new carpets, they did come out and lower the patio by 1 inch , they say the garden is so wet , the bricks along bk of house is wet , that air brick with 2 pipes in is at front of house they say fronts not as bad , but due to a leak in kitchen , it was not good 👀🤔
74 Tv screens will certainly help you to sort the situation anyway but ver ver impressive Roger
Telescopic vents are so often incorrectly fitted, these look at least one course too low looking at the bottom of the door and I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't one behind the airbrick
Ground level has been raised years after
Use patio cleaner on the wall to get rid of the green,m
No need for background music.
I like background music.
@@gdfggggg Not when there's a narration. This music disease has spread, annoyingly over TV programmes as well. Grrrh.
@@nickhickson8738 buy I like it, as do many others. Just relax and enjoy it.
@@gdfggggg I find it distracting and irritating.
Unfortunately a large proportion of the population seem to have the smallest of attention spans on social media… swip, swip, swip! 😅 Background music helps retention and if set at the right level shouldn’t be obvious… maybe the editor needs to lower it a few db next time👍🏼😉
Why do they build with such a low underfloor space? The whole house is at least 2 courses too low.
Is that Roger on SKY news channel ? ..... all fancy n stuff now are we ? ..... 📺
Eh?
Patios too high
Good lord bring back the green room XD
Badly built house then patio bashers bridging dpc. Wall insulation compounds problem and traps moisture. Id take 2 foot out all around and assess that dpc as well as sorting the obvious air brick.
Dog tied to rwp damage?
Terrible error by so called trades .
I am not sure they are air bricks they look like screens to stop vegetation and small animals being washed down beneath the property.😉
What a beautifully done ruclips.net/user/postUgkxYGamVaHfdHiPlAQaLa7zkwR02OKpGYDU ! The instructions and the photographs are brilliant. It is thorough and genuinely informative. Ryan got another winner! No one does it better!
Love you videos, but hate the added background music. Please leave it out.
Nooice!
Get the idiots that put patio down back 😂
👍👍
As always a photo of not the intresting stuff
the airbrick (and damp course) were above ground when built - you must feel like a plonker.
Love the channel though, but no-one is perfect.
It is not enough to be above ground, they need to be free of flooding. That is why they maker telescopic vents. The patio was laid by the builders of the houses, they are hosing association houses
Nah, the patio/paving was laid by numpties, not builders. Keep Digging :)
Whack in a few periscopic vents jobs a good n .
Just the kind of wirk we do 👌🏼🧱👍🏽
Thanks Steve, so many people have looked at this problem and not suggested that.
👍👍