Brick "breathing" slots

[Wayne Weber]

I just moved into my new home, the first one which is all brick. Around the
bottom course of brick, between every third brick, the mortar is missing.
The builder says this is to allow the moisture to escape which will always
end up behind the brick since it is somewhat porous. Of course the ants and
who knows what else have already discovered these slots. My options are to
1: Assume the builder is crazy and just mortar up all these joints, or 2.
Place screening fastened by caulk back in the slots so it can't be seen
keeping whatever air movement basically intact but not allowing access to
the creatures in the woods just behind our house. Anyone out there have any
definitive information on the need for these slots?

--
Wayne Weber

[Daniel Hicks]

Don't close up the slots. If you're really getting ants in them, spray
a contact ant killer in the holes. If you really have a problem with
insects invading (how do they get into the house from there?) then get
some masonary wick material (heavy cord) and mortar it into the holes.

[Doug Boulter]

On Sun, 4 Jun 2000 02:11:01, "Wayne Weber" <wwe...@home.com> wrote:

> Anyone out there have any
> definitive information on the need for these slots?

As Dan said, leave your weep holes alone. There is a space between
the brick facade and the framed wall (covered by asphalt roofing paper
or a Tyvek or equivalent vapor barrier). The weep holes are standard
in brick construction for the exact reason the builder described. To
ventilate that space and allow the wall to breathe and dry out.
Remember that brick and mortar are not waterproof and can pass quite a
lot of water vapor into that space if they get wet.

Go with the ant spray.

Doug Boulter

To reply by e-mail, remove the obvious spam traps from the address

[Dave Solly]

dbo...@spamfree.speakeasy.org (Doug Boulter) wrote in <sXnyXDNIUu65-pn2-
t0sdp1...@dboultr-0.dsl.speakeasy.net>:

And what do you do if your house doesn't have weep holes??? The builder of
our house didn't put them in any of the houses he built. All the other
houses around our neighborhood have them.

Dave

[Hamm4fun]

>
>And what do you do if your house doesn't have weep holes??? The builder of
>our house didn't put them in any of the houses he built. All the other
>houses around our neighborhood have them.
>
>Dave
>
>
>
>
>
>

I would be very curious about what else he did not do.

[Daniel Hicks]

Dave Solly wrote:
>
> dbo...@spamfree.speakeasy.org (Doug Boulter) wrote in <sXnyXDNIUu65-pn2-
> t0sdp1...@dboultr-0.dsl.speakeasy.net>:
>
> >On Sun, 4 Jun 2000 02:11:01, "Wayne Weber" <wwe...@home.com> wrote:
> >
> >> Anyone out there have any
> >> definitive information on the need for these slots?
> >
> >As Dan said, leave your weep holes alone. There is a space between
> >the brick facade and the framed wall (covered by asphalt roofing paper
> >or a Tyvek or equivalent vapor barrier). The weep holes are standard
> >in brick construction for the exact reason the builder described. To
> >ventilate that space and allow the wall to breathe and dry out.
> >Remember that brick and mortar are not waterproof and can pass quite a
> >lot of water vapor into that space if they get wet.
> >
> >Go with the ant spray.
> >
> >Doug Boulter
> >
> >To reply by e-mail, remove the obvious spam traps from the address
> >
>

> And what do you do if your house doesn't have weep holes??? The builder of
> our house didn't put them in any of the houses he built. All the other
> houses around our neighborhood have them.

One could use a masonry bit to drill holes in the mortar near the bottom
of the first course. But it could be that a construction technique was
used that doesn't require them. For instance, if the brick is on a
steel brick ledge rather than the foundation, the steel may be
perforated. And solid brick (vs the usual brick "veneer") wouldn't
require them.

[Stephen and Dawn Walker]

We lived in Texas, and had scorpions that could come in through these holes. A
pest control service pushed copper scouring pad material (like steel wool, only
copper) into the holes. It helped a lot!

Dawn

Wayne Weber wrote:

> I just moved into my new home, the first one which is all brick. Around the
> bottom course of brick, between every third brick, the mortar is missing.
> The builder says this is to allow the moisture to escape which will always
> end up behind the brick since it is somewhat porous. Of course the ants and
> who knows what else have already discovered these slots. My options are to
> 1: Assume the builder is crazy and just mortar up all these joints, or 2.
> Place screening fastened by caulk back in the slots so it can't be seen
> keeping whatever air movement basically intact but not allowing access to

> the creatures in the woods just behind our house. Anyone out there have any

> definitive information on the need for these slots?
>

> --
> Wayne Weber

[Hamm4fun]

Now that I think of it we had a problem like this at work. They stuffed the
holes with Stainless Steel Wool. Don't have a clue to where you would get the
stuff.