I was adding an outside outlet to my circa 1880 house. Upon drilling through the brick pea gravel started falling out of the hole. Never have I seen or heard of filling the air gap with gravel? Was this a commonly accepted practice?
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Greetings natedaw ,
This post, in response to your question, will bump the thread through the 'recent discussion' listing again which will increase it's viewing.
Perhaps it will catch someone's attention that can help you with advice.
Cheers
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I've never heard of it but it might not be that bad an idea. Taking down old brick walls it is very common to find the weep holes blocked by mortar that fell through the gap while they were laying the brick. I wonder if it had something to do with that?
Older mortar often had very large aggregate ... are we talking 3/8" river stone, or smaller-than-3/8" aggregate that may remain after years of cement washout of heavy-aggregate mortar?
Jeff
Edited 8/2/2009 9:11 pm ET by Jeff_Clarke
I have mostly pea gravel >1/2" dia. Washed out aggregate from the field stone foundation is a very common occurrence around Southern Ontario, but I was drilling 16" above the mudsill. Also noticed there are no weepholes. Maybe the unable to read a level carpenters who built this place were way behind the times when it comes to the masons.