Ground level & 1930s foundations - 1930s house ground level & drainage

[ziggenpuss]

Hi all,

Okay apologies if this is in the wrong topic but first post and a little unsure of what's going to be needed. I have read a few topics and am starting to understand a bit..

We've moved into a 1930s semi-detached back in March. When we looked around there was damp on the living room wall under the window. I could clearly see the outside soil level and a large shrub/small tree which was growing under the window and side of wall were not helping along with a plastic downpipe straight into the soil instead of coupling up with the original downpipe.

Pictures here hopefully: https://ziggenpuss.imgbb.com/

So, I decided to dig out the tree, and lower the soil level as it was nearly at the same level as the air brick. I removed the tree and the roots as they had grown around the drainage pipe and into some mortar joints. The wall has since dried out apart from around the back of the downpipe area.

But my questions/problems are. I could do with getting it filled back up asap but would eventually like to level off the whole drive area for parking, maintenance free and possibly look at resin based surface. So I'm not sure what to do. Of course I'm thinking to sort the drain into one and repoint some of the bad mortar around the house but then what's the next thing..?? Should I put soil back in or hardcore and to what level - I was looking at the lowest blue engineered brick??, do I need to look at a French drain to get water away, do I take the rest of the concrete path away and continue around the house as we have some damp around the rear etc, etc. If someone could point me in the right direction it would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks in advance.

[Pablo]

http://www.pavingexpert.com/dpc01.htm
Hi Mate, read this, especially the part dealing with air gaps.
Pave the drive at whatever height you want, finish into a reversed kerb that lowers the level close to the house so it's below dpc.