A year ago we moved into our pre-war (?) ex local authority end terrace. This year we started tackling the garden which looked as though it hadn't been touched since the house was built - the patio (3x2 slabs!) sloped upwards and was not 150mm below the dpc. We have since excavated this to put our own patio down and found that the drain was blocked. For how long we don't know but every time water was emptied from the kitchen i.e. washing machine, it was finding its way underneath the slabs and not into the drain. Hence, the surrounding area was extremely wet. When we had a survey done on the house, there was a report of some damp in the kitchen but we were told it could have been the time of the year! The drain has been unblocked and no problems there. However, we left a gap at the edge of the patio to put in some plants. This has caused a bit of a problem. The soil is clay and is retaining moisture anyway but every time it rains, huge puddles appear. No good for the plants but my main concern is that the kitchen wall (outside only) is very wet and the water has no where to go. The puddle is also increased by water running down our neighbours patio which also slopes upwards (as ours did).
I hope someone might be able to help here and let me know if this is likely to be an ongoing problem, get worse or perhaps over the summer, the wall, which was damp because of the drain flooding, will eventually dry out. Thanks to anyone who might be able to help me on this. It is a bit of concern.