Browse Forums Building Standards; Getting It Right! 1 Jul 30, 2015 4:31 pm hi all, just starting to organise my paving outside new house in Perth, and come across an issue with weep holes and paving heights. house is double brick on slab, and the DPC should be below internal floor level, with weep hole in accordance with BCA 3.3.4.3. for some reason i don't seem to have any vertical weep holes, but I have several black tubes coming out under the first brick above the slab, which I only discovered recently after excavating a little sand: http://i61.tinypic.com/4j6eqa.jpg http://i59.tinypic.com/x2q89u.jpg http://i58.tinypic.com/2a5ae15.jpg http://i61.tinypic.com/34jc4gh.jpg (*) http://i60.tinypic.com/2n090ev.jpg (*) (* these last two I am just playing with paving heights, but you can see the internal floor level. pavers will compact down about 30 mm or so. black tubes will be covered?) BCA states that paving has to be 150 mm (or 75 mm in covered area) below weep holes - are these black tubes the same as weep holes? That would mean I would have to excavate several tonnes of dirt, and there would be almost 1/2m step into the house. but the site supervisor told me the paving would come up to around 1 course above the slab - which corresponds to the middle of the 2c brick, as shown under this low window, and the height of the drains also correlates: http://i61.tinypic.com/30kg5rn.jpg http://i58.tinypic.com/xmtppc.jpg http://i60.tinypic.com/2i78d1u.jpg i took a look around my neighbourhood at similar houses at various stages of construction, and none with 2c bricks had weep holes. i found one house with single course bricks that had vertical weep holes: http://i60.tinypic.com/ogdths.jpg http://i60.tinypic.com/igb7ft.jpg http://i61.tinypic.com/f1yyv8.jpg http://i57.tinypic.com/2dqtta0.jpg http://i60.tinypic.com/15r1jtl.jpg http://i61.tinypic.com/m954d2.jpg http://i59.tinypic.com/25hekh0.jpg so which is correct? are weep holes not required for 2c bricks? if they are required, why are there so many houses nearby that seem to be in violation of the BCA code (some of these triplex developments being built by reputable builders, so I doubt so many would get the code wrong)? can those black tubes be covered up? is 1c down the correct level for paving into entry and alfresco areas? sorry some pics seem to be in landscape. would be great to get some info from people with past experience into this before I start preparing the ground for paving. thanks in advance Re: Another weep hole question, required with double brick i 2Jul 30, 2015 7:45 pm Hi Alexyeo Weep holes are required above the paved ground level on all cavity walls reason/steps 1.Moisture build up will run down the internal cavity wall and needs to drain to the outside 2.If the drain tubes are below the ground level when the ground becomes saturated it might not drain properly 3. On rendered walls the moisture build up will eventually cause the outside coating to deteriorate and flake off, it then becomes a constant maintenance problem 4. they will need to be drilled out at the correct level Designer,Engineer (Civil,Const & Envir),Builder,Concrete & Masonry Contract.Struct Repairs Re: Another weep hole question, required with double brick i 3Jul 30, 2015 8:38 pm Hi, thanks for the reply, I'm aware of the role that weep holes play and what will happen if there is no avenue for this moisture to release. The question was more to do with, are the plastic tubes the same as weep holes, why are they placed on slab level instead of 1c or 2c higher, and why other houses in the area also do not have any weep holes (i.e., is it common practice or just laziness. i have noticed other threads on here where there was no DPC or weep holes installed in Perth: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=23525 and it seems some builders use Dampco in the mortar) I can't tell if there is a DPC membrane installed (no plastic sticking out externally between slab/brick) and the other houses in the area didn't have weep holes that I could see, but isn't drilling out weep holes at the correct level pointless if there is no internal flashing to direct the water out of those holes? in fact, drilling out holes can lead to increased moisture ingress? Re: Another weep hole question, required with double brick i 4Jul 30, 2015 8:42 pm also, is it possible to install a mini soakwell/ag pipe of sorts to the drain pipes if they are under the soil and pavers, so as to provide room for moisture to drain away (pipe not in direct contact with soil, to prevent termites/insects etc) Re: Another weep hole question, required with double brick i 5Jul 30, 2015 9:17 pm The tube is doing the same thing supposedly? Did they give you engineering footing details? The DPC is on the internal brick course and you should have a 2c difference in height between the outside and inside heights GL & FFL. Correct, it is poor masonry skills or laziness..if they have used clear dampco its difficult to see..hence most are coloured, the question now is did they used damp proof mix in the mortar? the common practice now is to parge the slab edge to waterproof ..did they do that? The flashing is used over windows and doors and there should align with external weep holes for 2S not required for 1S etc Have you taken photos? Designer,Engineer (Civil,Const & Envir),Builder,Concrete & Masonry Contract.Struct Repairs Re: Another weep hole question, required with double brick i 6Jul 30, 2015 9:30 pm unfortunately I was overseas during construction so no internal photos and nothing regarding dampco in documentation that I can remember, however I did recently open up a hole for other purposes in the brickwork at about 5c high, and below that is bogged with mortar, no visible flashing. sounds like crap brickies to me. with regards to paving heights and the black tubes, if the paving heights are 150mm lower than the tube (75 mm lower in the porch), it would mean almost 400mm step to internal floor level, which I have never heard of before. browsing other blogs from here, people with similar areas of brickwork have no visible weep holes, and even if they had black tubes at slab level, they would be covered by paving/concrete etc. example of this i found this morning of a very similar entrance: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AtPy5gmesIo/T ... G_3704.JPG what is the go in situations like this and the other houses under construction in the area with no visible weep holes? I guess that this is my main question at this stage... Re: Another weep hole question, required with double brick i 7Jul 30, 2015 10:33 pm Quite often they don't put weep around porches (Ie covered areas) & the non weathered side, if they wait 10 years or so they'll see where they should have put them. Designer,Engineer (Civil,Const & Envir),Builder,Concrete & Masonry Contract.Struct Repairs I know foam has been around since the 90's and CSR started manufacturing Hebel in 1989, so it's definitely possible 5 5451 can’t tell from the photo, a tie down rod will be 12mm, is it a steel beam? he should be able to work it out 1 4463 it depends on the natural ground level, if they excavated their boundary wall needed to be built as a retaining wall. If you filled, which sounds like the case then you… 1 7085 |