# Forum Home Renovation Brickwork  retrofit DPC in brick

## ozdrexler

So my garage doesnt have DPC in the brickwork. i am about to set on atask of retrofitting the DPC. 
Anyone done this before? 
My plan is to cut out about 1.5 meter lengths of mortar and then insert the dpc, replace with fresh mortar.  
Council wont approve use of a chemical dpc so must do it this way. Is it a difficult task?

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## PeteV

garages don't normally have a damp proof course unless there is a cavity in the wall... if this is the case, you may find it easier and safer to pull the wall down and start again.
what is the reason for putting a damp proof course in?
hope this helps!

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## Master Splinter

Its not hugely difficult - clean out your 1.5 meters but only re-mortar about 1.2 meters of it at a time so you have elbow room to skew the roll of DPC out of the brickwork.  It can be easier to use one of the stiff (metal mesh reinforced) DPCs as it doesn't have any chance of crumpling when you force new mortar into the gap, but this requires using overlapping segments rather than a continious piece.

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## ozdrexler

Converting double garage to 2 bedrooms and a kids play area.  
Currently going through council. It should pass now with plan for retrofit dpc. 
Interesting job which I am doing most on my own.  
1. Insert DPC into the single skin brickwork. Will do it same height as rest of house to keep it simple. 
2. Poor 100mm concrete over existing, leaving a 25mm gap between slab and the brickwork to allow drainage through weepholes.
3. Insert a single piece beam across top of garage doors to replace the 2 shorter ones there, as the brickwork between the garage doors is being torn down. A steel support will go in its place.
4. Remove brickwork from above garage doors. These bricks will be reused at the bottom to support the windows and to make it look less like a garage conversion and more like the main part of the house. Just visual affect mostly.
5. Put in the windows and then single skin brick into the gaps between the windows where the steel pole will be. again more visual then anything. It just keeps the front of the home looking uniform. 
6. Then set about the internals. 
The reno will convert the house from a 3 bedroom to a 5. The next step will be to somehow find room for a 2nd bathroom which I will leave for the pros me thinks.

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## ozdrexler

Good news is my plans to convert the double single skin brick attached garage to bedrooms has been approved.  
I do have to now work out the ebst way forward to meet termite management requirements. Thats something I hadnt considered. But other then that it was pretty straight forward process once I knew what i needed to provide. what council says it needs is likely to be 20x more then it really does need... e.g. it wanted plans signed by the local water board but i argued that it wasnt changing anything with the outisde of the house, i wasnt digging into the ground and there was no pipes or plumbing being anywhere enar the building area. Thankfully commonsense applied there.

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