Weep holes serve an important role in your home’s drainage and ventilation, but they can also provide pests such as mice and cockroaches an easy access point into your home.
Some weep hole mesh products promise to secure your home from these critters, but many are inferior when compared to a quality screen designed for covering weep holes in brick.
Wondering why? Let’s take a look at some of the problems with weep hole mesh products.
Let’s first remind ourselves why these products exist. Protecting your weep holes is important as they help moisture and accumulated water escape your brick home.
Without well-functioning weeps, your home could fall victim to structural damage from rot, or mold and mildew issues that can affect you and your family’s health.
Weep hole mesh and other cover products from brands like Weepa, aim to protect these openings from being accessed by pests, while still maintaining their functionality.
However, weep hole mesh products can create issues of their own and be unreliable solutions. Let’s explore some of these issues in more detail.
Many weep hole mesh products use tightly bound fibers made from steel or woven polyester, and proudly claim that their products are impenetrable and completely fill the weep space.
This in itself is a problem because weep hole mesh that is packed this dense can impede the drainage of water and severely limit ventilation and the circulation of air.
While they may help to exclude pests from entering your home, this overly dense design may create other problems associated with trapped water that can be far more expensive to repair.
Be wary of using copper mesh for weep holes. When not used with fasteners or adhesives, and simply shoved into the hole, these weep hole mesh products can easily be dislodged from a secure position.
This may look like sagging, or the weep hole mesh moving so that an opening becomes present. Worse yet, the entire product may fall out of the hole if left unchecked.
Either way, this leaves the weep exposed. Many pests and insects only require a small opening to find their way into your home where they can cause structural damage or potential health issues for your family.
Weep hole mesh products that have tiny holes or gaps can easily become clogged by the build-up of small particles and debris.
The air that enters the cavity walls of your home contains lots of airborne particles and these can settle on the surface of weep hole mesh when forced through small openings.
These blockages can then impede the weep’s function and result in poor drainage and proper wall ventilation which we know can lead to serious and costly damage.
In an attempt to cut costs and save a small amount of time, some homeowners have resorted to using steel wool in weep holes as a form of protection against pests.
This idea, while resourceful, comes with a lot of trade-offs. Just like many weep hole mesh products, steel wool is far too dense and thick to allow for proper drainage and ventilation meaning you hinder the very function that these holes serve.
While steel wool has many uses, the material is not designed for use outside and decays quickly, exposing an entry point for pests. You may also be left with staining on your brickwork or render as the steel wool rusts.
While you may think you are solving a pest problem at minimal cost, you might be creating a far more expensive issue in the long run.
Weep hole mesh products might look like a simple solution to pest problems, but they have several weaknesses when compared to stainless steel weep hole inserts.
A quality cover is not dense and is designed to not impede drainage or ventilation. They allow your weeps to function as they should whilst protecting against pests.
A stainless steel weep hole cover is sturdy and will not dislodge easily from its place as they utilize a design that provides a secure fit inside the weep regardless of the contours of the space itself.
Finally, the gaps of a quality cover are large enough for small particles to move through without becoming lodged or clogged as they may in dense material.
Weep hole mesh aims to protect the opening of a weep from pests and vermin, but its design often makes them an inferior alternative to a quality cover.
The material used in a lot of these products is too dense to allow for adequate drainage and ventilation, which can lead to serious structural damage caused by rot.
Copper mesh for weep holes can also dislodge or sag over time, providing openings for pests to enter your home through its drainage system.
Some of these products can also become easily clogged due to the small gaps used, and inferior alternatives like steel wool are even worse as they deteriorate quickly and can stain your walls.
If you want to protect your home and family the right way, opt for a quality cover over a weep hole mesh product.