How is a brick faced exterior wall constructed?

I have an area where the bottom the brick is the same height as the floor inside. This brick - like all of the brick on my home - has weep holes ever so often.

How is the brick wall constructed?

I'm wondering how it avoids interior rot due to the water that bounces up off the sidewalk or may blow in during a rainstorm.

I peeked into one of the weep holes and noticed what looked like about 1/2 to 3/4 of the brick height having what looked like mortar slop... and behind that was something that was greyish white (at least from my poor view).

Its common for many bricklayers to place clothesline in the weep hole when they are doing their mortar. The clothesline keps a round shape with mortar, wicks water out and eventually rots away. The stud wall may be only covered with tar paper depending on the homes age.

It's a 13 year old house... and I didn't see anything that looked like clothesline.

All that was in there was mortar slop - and a wall-looking thing that was grayish-white in color. I will say that, despite it having rained quite hard only moments before (I live in south Texas), it was bone dry inside the weep hole.

If you are worried that you will eventually get water via the hole you can stuff in your own clothesline, about 4"

Yep... water penetration is what I'm concerned about.

I was hoping that the wall would be built with some sort of flashing at the base. It would make more sense, although I'm sure that the expense prevents it from being a reality.

My whole home maintenance freak out is a new thing. I had a nightmare house in Raleigh, but when we moved to San Antonio, I thought we'd found a place that was nearly problem-free. Then... about six months ago... I went to replace some rotted siding (no biggie, right?) by the patio. After I'd removed the siding, I found the sole plate was rotted out the entire length of the patio. This got me nervous.

That sole plate experience is what got me to ask about the potential for problems with the weep holes.

What you saw was probably mortar. When laying brick, a bed of mortar is put in the center of the brick and the point of the trowel then used to make it into sort of a M or V shape. Brick layer just remove the front half of that V. The building paper keeps the moisture from the wood. There is a 1/2 gap between the brick and the sheathing, the brick facing is tied to the sheathing with metal straps embedded in the mortar and nailed to the studs.

I just got out my most powerful flashlight and looked in the hole.

There was a shiny reflection in the hole... so it's possible it may actually be flashed. Shocking if it is - it's what the brick industry suggests. I've been online checking this out while checking Houston for updates on Ike.

There's mortar piled up the weep hole - this is apparently just slop. Above that, there's this shiny reflection. It's not wet, so it's either really shiny paper, or it's metal.

I've also found a number of those straps buried in my yard... the guys who built my house were real slobs.

The shinny reflection is probably foil insulation. It isn't important how many straps are in your yard, it's how many are in you wall. The inspector uses a metal detector to locate them in the wall. Brick layers have been known to just throw in a hand full every so often. Don't want to take the time to nail then up.

Given that (a) it's tough to figure out what's behind the wall and (b) I'm a home hypochondriac... I'm going to pull a Captain Kirk. Don't like the way things are going? Change the rules.

I'm going to change my drainage dynamic tomorrow by laying decomposed grainite at a lower level than the current sod. This will keep things from bouncing up into the weep holes (it's currently 12x6 concrete blocks at the place where the roof drains off).

Do you have gutters and downspouts?

Not along that side of the house. I have gutters above the patio.

My house is pretty simple - just a big rectange, with the narrow side facing the street. The patio sits in the back left-hand corner as you face the street. The back side of the house is all siding - the other three sides are all brick. The ground slopes from patio level in the back (which is floor level - and a contributor to the already replaced rotted sole plate) to about three feet below floor level in the front.

I had more ground to floor level distance on that side of the house until I installed sod... I forgot that the sod comes with its own chunk of dirt... and that's what's raised up the ground on that side too high.

First of masonry bricks should be laid high enough so as not to get splashed with water. That is in a perfect world though. Does the bottom course of bricks look like they are suffering any water damage? Do they look different then the top course of bricks? If not then I would not worry about it. Any water that splashes into those weeper holes will likely weep out or be absorbed by the bricks themselves which if they are clay can suck up their own weight in water. Of course you don't want this especially in a freezing climate. As for what is behind the bricks, some codes require a plastic strip stapled to the structural wall first so that it is L shaped overhanging the foundation. This stops any penetratioin to the wood. The tar paper then overlaps this plastic on the wall so any moisture will run away.

You can buy special plastic weepers that stop the water from pentetrating and still allow air flow which is the reason the weeper holds are there in the first place. There are two kinds that I know of. One can only be installed in the right size joint, the other type looks like corrogated cardboard and can be doubled up or tripled up to fit the joint. Check masonry supply store.

Hi gentlemen I'm a mason 32 years and the post have been real interesting. In the old days we would use 15lb tar paper over whole house. We in early days never put weep holes in at all. In commercial however we had tar paper above window angle iron onto iron and the brick header had weep holes. Down at the bottom mid 80s Put in a termite shield on our first course of brick but still no weep holes there. Later it was counter flashing on the course where the weep holes are. Here Lanc Pa I cut into a lot of houses and no weep holes in bottom course and good wood behind. I don't know the Geo for STG. I personally think the lower weep holes are more for bugs and ants to use The weep hole is about useless if the top of the brick soffit doesn't breath which the old plywood ones don't except where grills were cut in Again my prof on weep in brick. I also really think its society again OO MOLD kind of the Lead paint scare. And please don't bust me on that to many stories I could tell you of personal fact.

Happy Holidays!!