I've been lifting some old, badly laid slabs as part of my patio/garden renovation project, and I've found that within a few inches of the conservatory is the remains of a single course retaining wall. The top of the wall is about a brick & a bit below the DPC on the conservatory - Poor pic:
The original slabs were laid dry on top of this.
My worry is down to the proximity of this wall to the conservatory, would pulling it out hurt the footings of the conservatory? I'm sure the wall pre-dates the conservatory.
The other lesser, yet significant issue is I have plant (mini excavator) until monday, which will speed the destruction (one way or another), but the skip I've got is full, so tearing a 4m dwarf retainer out is going to leave me a with a big pile of rubble and nowhere to put it.
I'm laying India sandstone, so if I were to leave the wall in situ, allowing for a bed of mortar, it would probably finish about half a brick below DPC - I think that might be a bit close!
Thanks for the advise, as it turned out the bricks weren't stuck down too well and a light tap with the hammer was all they needed to loosen. The foundation concrete is still there, which may cause issues as the patio level looks to be lower than the lawn its supposed to drain onto so I might have to put a linear drain in next to the wall..
you can still slope the patio away from the house/conservatory, then just have a small step up to, to my recollection a flag on egde will retain 300mm. I'll see if I can di out the photo of my personal patio.
