Brickie

When did you do this sample? Has the mortar had time to fully cure & achieve its proper tone?

Ahem..unless you run a busy plastering firm ?

Unless you have it on good authority that your Brickie is massively OCD with regard to insulation,ditch the rigid insulation boards. In fact,ditch them anyway.

I don’t think your house was originally end of terrace,& as such your now ‘Gable’ wall would’ve been a ‘party’ wall,built to a lower standard of accuracy as it would’ve been plastered (I believe the Victorians gave a lot of party wall work to the apprentices to give them experience.) Its entirely possible that once the render is removed you have nice,rustic looking brickwork underneath but be prepared for that not to be the case. Also likely that the fireplaces you will expose are just filled with common brickwork or blocks.

If you still have a machine on site,dig a sump hole adjacent to the footing to give the water somewhere to go.

So you’re taking down to DPC(I presume)? Has anyone considered the possibility of taking right down to footing level & starting from scratch with a much wider cavity?

The chances of your cavity side of your inner leaf wall being free from mortar snots and generally clean & tidy to receive rigid sheets is low. Are you taking down the outer skin because you don’t like the appearance of of the existing bricks?

One thing I’d suggest if following Tony’s example-stagger the joints of the insulation sheets so there’s no chance of a small gap from inside to out.

think it’s just davidkinsey.co.uk

+1 to the downpipes & also that timber boxing in the corner isn’t doing you any favours. Have you stood outside when it’s raining & seen if there any visible issues with the down pipes & hopper?

Which channel is it on?

What’s the projection of your finished render to the substructure blockwork? (I.e. the measurement back from one to the other?) And are you having paving down the relevant sides?

3” blocks are often used to back up the plinth detail ,which obviously reduces your cavity. If these are hard to source,backing up with bricks laid on edge is also an option. Finally,if reduced cavity is undesirable then you could use bricks cut in half lengthways to back up the outer skin. This would be easier to achieve than trying to cut blocks down.

Was the lead valley redone as part of the other works carried out? Yes,a lead tray is desirable but on the other hand there are literally thousands upon thousands of chimneys like yours without them & theyre not causing damp penetration to the extent you have.

Inner leaf blockwork is standard,and likely would have been at the time of construction. The mineral wool is probably the insulation installed as it was built,the beads are more likely a retrofit (or possibly an annexe extension?) Possibly installed by lifting the bottom course or two of roof tiles to give access to the cavity,and hence no tell tale holes. All just speculation,of course?

Was going to say something unkind about trophies being hidden but I’m far too mature a Gooner for that.

Exactly,and the concrete brick course works a treat for your lintols over pipe runs & air bricks.

As above-I’ve been doing footings exclusively for around a year now & laying blocks flat is what’s done to get over dips in the concrete. We would lay centre of block to centre of wall so when the wall steps back in to 100mm it’s balanced nicely.

If it does need underpinning then,potentially the cost of that element is reduced by the fact that you’d want to excavate there to repair/reinstate the path & to investigate the condition of the drainage.

I think you’re right to be cautious. Do you know anything about the ground conditions locally?

Can you slide a butter knife into the gaps you’ve highlighted?

I’d say the course just visible is part of the footings brickwork & was never meant to be seen,the fact that it’s stack bond is annoying but nothing to worry about in the scheme of things. Extremely hard to tell if there’s any actual movement occurred locally in the zone highlighted or if the pointing has degraded over time with rain splash. Same with the perpend joints on the partially seen course-no way of knowing if it’s degraded or if the joints were ever full in the first place? Can I ask the significance of tomorrow?

David Kimsey’s website is well worth a visit.

+1

Do you have a photo of the back door from outside?