Do you know where the weep holes in your home are located? And the role they play in keeping your home safe and healthy? Every cavity brick building has some gaps in between bricks and external masonry walls, that are known as weep holes, which mainly go unnoticed by homeowners.
Weep holes are created to ventilate and drain the cavity between the external and internal walls. Without ventilation the moisture that forms due to condensation and capillary action creates mildew, rot, and damp that reduce the life of the timber wall studs and other building materials. When water enters this space, due to leaking roofs, faulty gutters, or any other type of accidental flooding, the weep holes act as a drain, allowing water to escape to the outside of the building, rather than through the internal walls.
Many people block weep holes to try to keep pests out, and there are a lot of pests that want to come in through your weep holes. Unfortunately, blocking the weep holes may end up having much more detrimental effects than the pests. It can lead to leaky building syndrome, which is when water penetrates the building envelope and is held between the interior and exterior walls. Fungal growth then literally eats away the wall materials, which can leave homeowners with a costly repair bill. In New Zealand the failure to adequately ventilate and drain the wall cavity became systemic over a 10 year period and the estimate repair cost is over 11 billion dollars.
If you're constructing a new home, be sure to use one of our vermin proof solutions to maintain the function of your weep holes. If you've already built, we've got a simple retrofit solution for you too.
