I've been having a good look at the walls on our flat after noticing damp in the inside wall in a particular place.

When I've looked, I've noticed that the slate damp proof course is below the level of the driveway!
The block paved driveway was apparently fitted by some of our 'travelling friends' a few years ago and they basically laid the blocks over the top of the old driveway rather than removing the old one first.

As it wouldn't be really practical to tear up the whole driveway, I was thinking about ways to try and prevent the damp problems. Would it be possible to remove the edge row of blocks nearest the wall and install some ACO Borderguard edging to hold the blocks in place then fill the remaining gap with some kind of stones to hopefully help rainwater drain into the ground rather than sitting on the surface and soaking into the wall?

pretty much as you say idealy the path needs to be 6" below the dpc
theres a fair chance theres a new dpc or if it is the origional it may be breaking down

if its concrete underneath how is the water going to drain away!!

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we are all ------------------still learning

I've not found out for certain if it's concrete underneath, it's just what the neighbour suggested about it. I'm planning on removing a couple of blocks to check and if it's concrete underneath I'll have to try and remove it so the water can drain away.

There doesn't appear to be a new DPC anywhere around the building, just the old slate one as far as I can see. Would it be possible/practical to have a new DPC installed above the current driveway?

the dpc should be 2 bricks below floor level

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we are all ------------------still learning

I've pulled out a couple of the blocks and it turns out that there's no concrete underneath as previously thought.

The DPC is one brick below the surface of the driveway, approximately 75mm.

Would it be worthwhile to remove the blocks and gravel to a depth of one brick below the DPC, allow them to dry out and then try treating the brickwork before filling the gap with decorative gravel? Would this help?

Another option I though of was to add a long drive drain along the side of the house where the DPC is breached but I'm not sure if this would work?

Hi Graemet,

Basically you have a few options available firstly i would not even consider injecting a new DPC because of the other factors involved ie floor level internally.
You could like you say remove the pavers along the length of the house and create a gravel trench, but unless you are going to fix the remaining kerb edge by concreting or bedding then you will find that the pavers will spread, personally i would go for laying an ACO drain along the length of the house and connect into the downpipe gulley this will take away any surface water and you can pave back upto it without to much disruption

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