Soil against wall?
I'm finally getting to the very end of an epic fight go get our garden in order, and had a small bit next to the front door what I still needed to dig up, sift and improve the soil as it was probably 50% rock/broken glass/gravel/building pieces/plastic from when we got our house renovated.
The garden is on a slope that tilts away from the house, and I have made sure the lawn follows this, so any rain etc will run away from the house at a noticeable gradient.
Anyway, when I dig it up over the weekend, I noticed that it was about 3-4 inches of soil followed by 5-6 inches of gravel for against the house wall, and for about 4-5 inches out from it. I didn't think anything of this, since it turns out the builders used our garden as a spare skip and buried maybe 2-3 tonnes of rubble etc around the garden, which has taken months to fix between the front and back.
The only thing is, when I was done (and of course not while I was doing it!) my wife wondered if that gravel might be there to protect the exterior walls from wet soil or potential rising damp etc?
I have no idea how to check if we have DPC but it is a 1940s ex council house so it may not. The grey walls were pebble dash (we got plastered and I plan to pain soon) while the white parts were as-is before we bought it. We did get DPC put in during the renovation, though if I recall that was more to do with the flooring than exterior walls. The soil line is a good 2+ feet below the level of the floors inside, which are in line with the stop and front door.
I *think* it is OK, but don't really know so I figured it's best to check, esp while the soil is still quite loose as it only went down yesterday, and as the gravel is still in bags in the front garden, so I can make a wedge with a shovel and fill with said gravel if needs be.