We have just bought a house (Victorian) which has some damp issues. We had an independent damp survey and he noted that the path up to the door (door is at side of house, stairs in middle ) is too high which although not bridging the damp course is quite close to it and also means that the air bricks are half covered. I'm looking at them now in the rain and water is definitely going into them. So he suggested lowering the level of the path by digging a 6" wide trench along the side of the house and filling it with pebbles. This seems similar to a french drain, although he didn't suggest a pipe. So my question is, has anyone done this, and did it work, and do you think we could do it ourselves, and if so how? I'm happy to hire something to dig a trench in the concrete but worried about damaging the foundations! God there's so much to do to this house I can't afford much more!