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External works and drainage in Kuching

Concrete aprons, driveways, retaining walls and drainage — the external works that keep water from finding its way back inside.

  • Drainage
  • Concrete apron
  • Driveway
  • Retaining wall
  • Turfing
Side driveway and covered entrance after external works — concrete apron, board-marked retaining wall and a linear drainage channel.BeforeAfter

Kuching gets more than four metres of rain a year. Most of the damp that shows up inside a house arrives through the outside of it — an apron that falls towards the wall instead of away from it, a drain that was never connected, a retaining wall with no weepholes.

External works are laid to fall, with the falls set out before the concrete is poured rather than corrected afterwards. Driveways, car porch aprons, perimeter drains, sumps, retaining walls, boundary walls and turfing.

It is the least photogenic part of a renovation and the part that decides whether the paint inside is still sound in five years.

Questions

External works and drainage — questions

Every question we get

Why does my wall keep getting damp near the floor?

Usually the external apron. If it has settled so it falls back towards the house, rain runs to the base of the wall and rises through it. Re-laying the apron to fall away, with a drain at the low point, fixes the cause; repainting the inside only hides it until the next monsoon.

Can you do drainage without redoing the whole driveway?

Often yes — cutting in a linear channel along the low edge and connecting it to the existing sump. Whether that is enough depends on where the water is currently going, which is a site visit question.

Why does water pond in my car porch every time it rains?

The slab has no fall, or it has settled so the fall now runs the wrong way. Kuching gets over four metres of rain a year, so a porch that is a few millimetres out over its length holds water every storm. The fix is to re-lay the apron to a set fall with a channel at the low point; grinding or topping the existing slab only moves the puddle.

Do I need approval to build a retaining wall or raise my boundary wall?

Usually yes for a retaining wall above a certain height, and for anything that changes where water leaves your lot — those are the two things a local authority checks, because both end up as the neighbour’s problem when they fail. We confirm what your address requires and handle the submission where one is needed.

External works and drainage we have finished

All works

Get in touch

Tell us about your renovation.

Send a few photographs and the address on WhatsApp and we will arrange a site visit. Quotes are free and itemised.

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