water coming through weeps

[horace1]

Help.
I have a conservatory and water is pouring in through the weeps that the builders put in - the house is 8 years old and have had 1 or 2 probs with mortar on bricks - the builder has ground out 30mm-40mm and repointed.
This was 12 months ago and now water comes through weeps.
also what is there out there to seal powdery mortar, i have tried mastics but no good HELP!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[^woody^]

You can either get a cavity tray inserted above the conservatory roof abutment, or give the whole wall a coat of water repellant (ie Thompsons). Also check any bedroom cill above to ensure no water is getting in through there.

Thompsons may help with the mortar, but not for long. It will need repointing

 

[horace1]

what the builders did on the re-point is sound but where i put the flashing its powder -i have wire brushed it all out and applied abuilders mastic still -issing is through weeps and wall looks wet!!!!!!!

 

[^woody^]

I presume these weep holes are inside the conservatory?

In which case the only way to guarantee that water does not get this far, is to insert some cavity trays. Repointing is not enough.

 

[horace1]

thank you

 

[horace1]

do i have to take bricks out as on internet or what

 

[joe-90]

There's something I'd like you to check out first.

In all my time in property (over 30 years) I've never known a house to leak on the inside walls.

Houses are made of brick that soaks up the UKs rainfall.

It never rains hard enough to saturate a house to the point whereby water runs down the inside walls and out through weep vents.

Before that happened the outside bricks would run like a waterfall.

Many old cottages are built with just one 4" skin - yet they don't have water cascading down the inside walls (lived in one as a kid).

Next time it rains, take a walk around where you live and see how many houses have the same problem that you have.

The USUAL casuse of your problem lies with your guttering.

The water cascades over the top of the gutter and runs down the INSIDE of the cavity wall and out of the weep vents.

I, personally, have never known any other cause than this.

If I were you I'd check it out before doing anything else.

Next time you have heavy rain (or hosepipe) get up and check that your gutter isn't overflowing at roof height.

 

[tawelfryn]

It never rains hard enough to saturate a house to the point whereby water runs down the inside walls and out through weep vents.

Joe do you mean by running down the inside walls, the internal leaf of a cavity wall?. If you do then I agree with you something is wrong, but water does penetrate the outer leaf and runs down the inside of the outer leaf. That's why weep holes are put in on cavity trays above openings, if the water is coming out of these weep holes, and there is no damp on the heads of the openings on the inside skin, then the weep holes are doing their job correctly, as the water is coming to a stop when it hits the dpc tray, then runs to the ends where it should be turned up, and out through the weep holes

 

[horace1]

thanks for the interest-
the water dosent come out of all the weeps onl 1 of them and its the outside wall of the house on the inside of the conservatory.
this is the 1st time in 8 years its done it

 

[tawelfryn]

Now I think I know what your problem is, its coming from a weep hole that is above your patio door which leads into your conservatory? Well this is because of what I said in my earlier post, rain hits the external leaf and runs down the internal of this leaf, then out through the weep holes. Your seeing this because of all the heavy rain we have had, and when your conservatory was added at a later date, stepped cavity trays should have been added above the roof line to stop the water running below and into your conservatory through the head of the patio doors weep holes. It obviously wasn't
A; because its a hell of a job to do
B; to cut corners and think "it will never happen anyway"
Don't worry too much as it will only happen in extreme weather when the rain is slamming into that particular wall above your conservatory