there isn’t supposed to be weep holes below the window ledge right? My interpretation of the the code is bottom row of bricks Anna above windows and doors. Is this a defect?
Answer this… What harm do they do?
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None really but in some cases I’ve seen 5-6 bricks down from the window ledge.
Chuck Gossett
TREC 21299
And answer this… What purpose do they serve?
Flashing and Weep holes
In general, when a collar joint, cavity or air space is interrupted, such as at sills, at the base of the walls, at lintels over openings and at shelf angle supports, flashing should be provided in the wall. The function of flashing is to serve as a collector for any moisture penetrating the wall or the sill.
Once moisture penetrating the wall or sill has been collected on the flashing, it must be removed from the wall. This is the function of weep holes.
Brick sills have potential avenues for water penetration.
So the detail shown in the OP’s picture is actually lacking showing the extension of the flashing beyond the brick face and drip down.
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They do a lot of harm, if not installed correctly.
Back during the Great Nashville Flood I had a dozen houses that were damaged by weep holes. But 19" of rain tends to do that…
The mortar joints of the ledge should not line up with the weep holes or water will flow right in.
If the window unit leaks, it allows water to drain and air to ventilate.
To ventilate properly there must be an opening above and below. The window unit blocks the opening at the top of the wall and stops ventilation of the finger space.
This is not based on building code (which is not our job), rather Building Science and Thermography which documents these findings on a regular basis.
Thanks guys, for answering for the OP. My questions were meant to glean information from the OP to see if he understands the subject, and to use that information to arrive at a plausible conclusion to his concerns. That is all he has in the field to rely on… his own knowledge.
As always, nobody here can contain themselves. If we keep giving the answers to posters on this MB, do they ever learn to analyze and think for themselves? Based upon the rash of basic questions lately, most of which are easily researched, I suspect that answer would be a big fat ‘no’.
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Agreed…!
For those who provided a constructed answer, thank you. I’m not into questions being answered with questions. I do not need lessons on analytics. This is a nice opportunity for inspectors to lend help and share experience.
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But a whole bunch of people who come here do…
When you can simply look it up, why should we spend the time looking it up for someone who is just as capable?
As you see in Roy’s response, the answer and diagram is from this web sight.
Inspectors that look things up, find a dozen more answers to questions they didn’t know in addition to their OQ.
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Then look it up and don’t go to this forum. That’s the answer.
But that is not the norm here.