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I'm making a flower bed next to my house. I was wondering if it would be ok to cover the weep holes with dirt or do I need to make somekind of box around them so they aren't covered? What if I extended them out with plastic tubing? Any suggestions welcomed.
I guess to function as weep holes, they shouldn't be covered. I like the pipe idea. The pipe should extend through the bed and through the timbers to still work. Depending on how deep you plan to fill the planter, the one on the right looks like it might be okay the way is is.
You might want to consider plants that don't need a lot of water for this spot, too. This link doesn't talk specifically about your issue, but similar ones that might interest you
NO. And you'd find most codes requiring at least 6" to the grade. Otherwise, you will get moisture trapped behind the brick and interior wall, degrading (weaking, rotting) both, and allowing fungus to grow.
For others who might read this to get ideas, it is often a bad idea to set up a flower bed or something which results in piling up dirt next to a wall or fence (weepholes or not). The damp will soak in and ruin the structure. Even with foundations, the portion below the existing ground level has been specially treated to repel water soaking in from soil, but the portion above ground might not have that treatment. A simple solution would be to make the flower bed 4-sided, set a few inches away from the wall. That is, instead of putting timbers around 3 sides to hold the dirt, and the 4th side resting against the wall, make a complete box with the timbers (or whatever material you are using) so that they enclose all 4 sides of the bed, and be sure to position it a few inches away from the wall. That is the technique I am using for a raised bed I want to put next to our fence. This way, I won't rot out the bottom of the fence.
It is with hope that your masonry contractor knows where your drain piping system is located behind the brick wall.
If you drill holes above the drain trench system then you have severely compromised the effectiveness of the drain system.
Any reputable contractor with experience will install their drain trench down ontop of the footing lip.
The weep holes are in line ( and often connected into ) with the drain trench / piping / drain rock.
If you install weep holes above the drain trench then you are compromising the intent of the drain system and putting additional hydrostatic load on the wall.
