Heard a homeowner say her last bricklayer used dry stack and left no weep holes

I was picking up supplies at the yard last Thursday and overheard this woman talking to the sales guy about her retaining wall. She said the guy who did it three years ago just stacked the bricks tight with no gaps for water to escape. She figured she saved money until water built up behind the wall and pushed it over last month. Now she's looking at a full tear-out and rebuild that's gonna run her close to $2,500. I felt bad for her but it made me think about how many corners get cut just to win a bid. My crew always puts in weep holes every 3 feet on any wall over 2 feet tall. Has anyone else dealt with fixing a job that was done without proper drainage?

3 comments

3 Comments

avery_jackson21d ago

You ever read that article in Fine Homebuilding about retaining wall failures? I swear like 80% of them come down to no drainage. I saw one job where a guy used landscape fabric behind the wall but sealed it tight against the bricks, basically turned the whole thing into a swimming pool. Three years later the wall bowed out like a pregnant belly. The homeowner ended up paying triple what it woulda cost to do it right the first time. Weep holes every 3 feet and gravel backfill woulda saved her a lot of headache.

jasonallen21d ago

That "pregnant belly" line got me - I've seen that exact thing on a job where the homeowner tried to sue but the contractor had already shut down his LLC. Here's what I'm wondering though: how do you even spot the lack of weep holes before its too late? Like, I know they're supposed to be visible on the face of the wall but what if the guy buried them behind dirt or landscaping or whatever? Seems like a lot of folks might not catch it until the wall is already starting to bulge and by then you're looking at thousands in damage. Is there some trick to checking for water buildup behind a wall before it becomes a problem?

karen36121d ago

My uncle had a rental property where the retaining wall was behind a massive overgrown bush. He didn't find out the weep holes were completely buried until a rainstorm washed half the hill into his neighbor's pool. The landscaper who planted the bush had just piled dirt right over them like they didn't matter. Took a shop vac and two full days to dig out enough mud to even see the wall face.