fitting a damp proff membrain in a block wall?

its wonky · Post by **its wonky** » Tue Aug 05, 2008 9:01 am

Hi, Hopefully a very simple question that someone can answer for me. I am going to build a concrete block wall over the next few days between mine and our next door house. It will be around 12 foot long and 8 foot high and we are going to make it out of the large (9" I think) hollow concrete blocks but the bottom 6 " will be solid blocks. We want to fit a damp proof membrain so that we can both use this wall to rest our conservatory rafters on and it will effectivly become a inside wall or at least a always dry wall. Hope you understand what I mean. How do you fit a plastic damp course? do you just lay it 6" above ground on the blocks? and if so do you use cement on one or both sides?. If you do not use cement does this mean the rest of the wall above it is effectivly not bonded to the base of the wall and with a really good push it could go over?. As you can tell I am new to this DIY building

Thanks for any advise.

leebwk · Post by **leebwk** » Tue Aug 05, 2008 11:44 am

Hi,

Your DPC should be at least 150mm above outer ground level and if you are doing the oversite aswell then this should be linked ie built in to the DPC aswell.
Lay the DPC on a thin mortar bed and then lay your blocks on top of this never lay it dry.