How to seal gaps between path and wall?

Andy From Sligo

hello there, just moved into a new rented house and im not brilliant with building work, im not even good at mixing sand and cement to right consistency lol. Been walking round the parameter of the house and there are these gaps between the path and the house wall (as in pic) not very large gaps, but id like to have a go at filling them all the same. What would I be best to do buy some ready mixed concrete from the builders merchant that you just mix with water and trowel it on into the gaps or is there something on the market thats in a cartridge like mastic and goes into a mastic cartridge gun.. but dries like cement, because i dont really want to put silicone/mastic there. Whats the best way to go do you reckon? Thanks.

martinr5232

Seems like a very small gap i dont think cement will do a lot for you probably be better off with mastic and get it right into the gap.

Im no builder so its only my opinion maybe someone else will have more experiance.

moonshadow

Why ? It's perfectly normal settlement of the footpath.

Thoie

Someone with more knowledge will come along, but I thought there was supposed to be a gap to allow for expansion/contraction?

jack of all

First off I'd question why you'd want to bother doing something like this in a rented house? The gap is very small and not worth bothering with in my opinion, but if you did want to fill it your best bet would be a cement based tiling grout, perhaps with some very fine sand added to the mix, as that's probably only thing that will have the workability to allow you to seal such a fine gap. A builder might use a grout designed for sealing/ grouting of steel baseplates, but that's a bit OTT for this job I think. The problem with a job like this that unless it's well done it can actually look worse and may lead someone to believe there's a serious settlement problem which is not the case. Just my two cents worth but others may shoot me down....

Andy From Sligo

thanks for the replies so far. just thought really apart from making it look a bit nicer filling up the gap(s) its would stop the rainwater rolling off the path to underneath the house and foundations, possibly ruining them and getting damp/water underneath the floor of the house. heres some wider gap in another place:


and heres a pc of a bit of path someone must have repaired/replaced before we moved in and they have cemented right up to the wall:

Thoie

If the house is built "properly", there'd be damp proof coursing there, so rain under there shouldn't matter. When you think about it, all houses/buildings sit on top of damp ground. The foundations don't go to the center of the earth, so they're generally sitting on ground that gets wet when it rains.

I'd really ask the landlord before doing anything.

Andy From Sligo

Thoie wrote: »

If the house is built "properly", there'd be damp proof coursing there, so rain under there shouldn't matter. When you think about it, all houses/buildings sit on top of damp ground. The foundations don't go to the center of the earth, so they're generally sitting on ground that gets wet when it rains.

I'd really ask the landlord before doing anything.

Im presuming the house has got Damp proof course there in place although I think the landlord mentioned the house was built in the 70's - did rural Ireland use DPC then at that time i dont really know? - I know even now as hot and dry as it is if I leave something like an item of clothing on the floor and pick it up the next day it feels a bit damp/wet.

Safehands

Andy From Sligo wrote: »

Im presuming the house has got Damp proof course there in place although I think the landlord mentioned the house was built in the 70's - did rural Ireland use DPC then at that time i dont really know? - I know even now as hot and dry as it is if I leave something like an item of clothing on the floor and pick it up the next day it feels a bit damp/wet.

If you want to do it then do it neatly. Get masking tape and place it along the bottom of the wall. Then get more tape and place it along the crack on the path.
(it may be difficult to get it to stick). Gun in a good quality mastic, preferably grey coloured. Smooth it off with your finger wrapped in cling film. Remove the masking tape, which will have the excess mastic on it, and you will have a neat sealed joint.

Andy From Sligo

Safehands wrote: »

If you want to do it then do it neatly. Get masking tape and place it along the bottom of the wall. Then get more tape and place it along the crack on the path.
(it may be difficult to get it to stick). Gun in a good quality mastic, preferably grey coloured. Smooth it off with your finger wrapped in cling film. Remove the masking tape, which will have the excess mastic on it, and you will have a neat sealed joint.

thanks i think i will give it a go one of these days, at least with mastic it will be flexible and shouldnt crack, and thanks for the tips

RKQ

jack of all wrote: »

First off I'd question why you'd want to bother doing something like this in a rented house? The gap is very small and not worth bothering with in my opinion, ..

100% agree.
This movement gap should only be filled with a flexible moving material like mastic.