Monks Eleigh, Suffolk

A modular housing scheme in Suffolk that was taking water in under the units. We were appointed under a JCT Minor Works contract to find the cause and put it right. The inspection ran plot by plot — the damp-proof course and the gravel strip to each unit, the falls on the external paving, the ground levels against the plinth, and the local dips at the air vents and the planting beds where water was standing. We stripped out floors to trace the ingress, took the damp-proof course down to the strip foundation and rebuilt it in a half-brick stretcher-bond course, infilled the pad foundations in dense blockwork, ran a self-adhesive bitumen membrane behind the render to seal the interface, and formed a grout fillet to the top of the course so water is thrown off the wall. Outside, we cut the ground levels back so the air vents sit clear and the ground falls away from the damp-proof course, excavated and installed channel drainage connected into the existing surface water system, put a French drain across the rear elevation, then relaid the floors and laid new paving to the entrances.