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It's just a ditch filled with gravel. cowboys and my trusting nature from long ago when we 1st moved in. Having done some more reading I think a proper French drain with piping and have it drain off to a drain point will help. But also read that it being a clay soil French drains are not that effective. 🤔.
I think I'll try to get a 2nd opinion. Anyone got a good builder to recommend for this sort of thing?
Rich_G-
It's just a ditch filled with gravel.
Which is often good enough - depending on why it was put there - in the picture @apc posted, for example, a gravel soakaway, cut against the wall, would stop the worst of the wicking up the rendered bit.
I'd go so far as to suggest, though, that a cement plinth / parging as an effort to mitigate damp is utterly bonkers.
NotThamesWater
if the kitchen has been dug below ground level then the best solution I would think would be to dig the ground level lower outside so that it is lower than the dpc and sloped so that water drains away from the house.
If you cant do that then I would have thought that so long as the french drain is dug below the dpc it should work, unless it's filling and collecting water from everywhere thats above it. Does the french drain have an actual pipe draining suitably far away from the house or is it just a ditch filled with gravel?