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| I live in a 90+ year old house with an old terra cotta weeping tile system. There are multiple openings in the ground on each side of the house. They are not attached to the gutter downspouts. Are the weeping tiles serving any purpose? I would really like to close them up as I feel they are breeding grounds for misquitoes, which we have an enormously bad problem with. I can feel standing water in a few of the pipes. It would be expensive and time consuming to try and dunk each tile opening every month. Could I just fill the pipes with concrete to close them up? Or maybe gravel, which would still allow some drainage (assuming some actually work) but no standing water?
Thanks for any help! |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by lazygardens (My Page) on Thu, Jun 7, 12 at 20:00
| Where do you live? There was a reasin for those tiles ... maybe they need new covers, but I bet they still drain. |
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| I have always lived in Alabama. Misquitoes are always a problem, but they have just been horrible at this house. We couldn't figure out why they were so bad here. We have dunked everything possible, sprayed the yard, fogged - you name it, we've tried it. I really believe these weeping holes are the cause as I can't find any other sitting water. I know the holes are meant to keep water away from the foundation and used to be tied into the city sewer system. This was phased out as it was too much of a burden on the water treatment plant. So I'm not sure where our pipes would drain to assuming they still work. Maybe we need to have them scoped or just leave them alone and suffer the mosquito bites. :( |
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- Posted by lazygardens (My Page) on Fri, Jun 8, 12 at 8:15
| Can you dig one out to see where it goes? Put screen covers over them until you verify that they aren't needed. A plastic embroidery hoop with fiberglass window screening will do it while you figure out if they can be filled in without messing with your drainage. |
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| Good idea about the screens! I will give it a try. The yard is far too big to dig them up. I may talk with a contractor to see what they think. I think the gutters directing the water away from the house is sufficient for protecting the foundation, but will check to make sure before doing anything permanent. Thanks! |
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