Weepholes in cavity brick walls serve two important purposes: Firstly, drainage — water that enters the cavity due to capillary action, condensation, damage, or accidental flooding needs to escape somewhere, a common concern in tropical and sub-tropical areas of Australia.
But just as important is ventilation of the internal wall cavity. Without ventilation, mildew, dry rot and damp reduce the life of the internal wall studs and other building materials within the cavity.
This can, in turn, lead to the unsightly damage to the internal wall now called Leaky Wall Syndrome or Leaky House Syndrome.
In New Zealand and Canada this problem has lead home owners to lodge thousands of claims against builders.
Front page headlines resulted in government enquiries and a rewrite of building standards emphasising the importance of cavity ventilation and drainage.
Various parts of Australia risk a similar public backlash due to the development of shoddy building practices that seriously compromise ventilation of the cavity.
In most areas the building code is enforced.
However, sometimes for the sake of appearance weepholes have been omitted completely and in some areas they are placed below ground level.
Weepa Products' new High Performance Bushfire Weepa solves these problems and more.
The cavity is ventilated, the PVC Grate with stainless steel mesh beneath prevents the ingress of sparks and pests into the wall cavity and the appearance of the wall is improved particularly in rendered jobs.