The SE specified Birtley thermally broken lintels for our build. Maybe I am worrying unnecessarily, but when I looked at the DPC cavity tray that the brickies installed. The DPC is sandwiched really tight between the lintel and the back of the brickwork. The brickies have done the tray correctly. It's the design of the lintel that forced this.

Just out of curiosity, how much water does actually flow down the back of the brickwork? If it's a lot, then I suspect the water will literally collect and be forced to the ends of the lintel and out of the final weep vents where the tray is folded up in the perp. This defeats having the weep vents along the lintel.

Has anyone else fitted these into a 150mm cavity and what was you observations?

2 hours ago, flanagaj said:

Just out of curiosity, how much water does actually flow down the back of the brickwork? If it's a lot, then I suspect the water will literally collect and be forced to the ends of the lintel and out of the final weep vents where the tray is folded up in the perp. This defeats having the weep vents along the lintel.

2 hours ago, flanagaj said:

It depends. If the wall is well built, rendered and not exposed to the weather, very little if any. If it is fair faced brickwork with incompletely filled perpends and exposed to the weather, then it can be a constant flow.

Any water should be forced out of the weep vents and the cavity tray should have stop ends so that's the 0/7/yway it can escape.

Edited 11 hours ago11 hr by Mike
Failed attempt to correct double quote

From my experience I've never seen water dripping out a weep vent on a house I've built. I've also had single brick garages and I've never seen water running down the inside. Perhaps I'm in quite a sheltered area of uk, midlands. Perhaps it's because I always use full fill insulation either batts or beads.

I'm sure water does get through but I think the risks are over stated.

10 hours ago, flanagaj said:

The SE specified Birtley thermally broken lintels for our build. Maybe I am worrying unnecessarily, but when I looked at the DPC cavity tray that the brickies installed. The DPC is sandwiched really tight between the lintel and the back of the brickwork. The brickies have done the tray correctly. It's the design of the lintel that forced this.

Just out of curiosity, how much water does actually flow down the back of the brickwork? If it's a lot, then I suspect the water will literally collect and be forced to the ends of the lintel and out of the final weep vents where the tray is folded up in the perp. This defeats having the weep vents along the lintel.

Has anyone else fitted these into a 150mm cavity and what was you observations?

What do you think a better option would be maybe start the tray a course higher in the brickwork?

51 minutes ago, Oz07 said:

What do you think a better option would be maybe start the tray a course higher in the brickwork?

Good question. Starting the tray a course higher, would mean there is a slight risk of water ingress in the brick below.

I don’t see any reason why the lintel can’t be incorporated into the tray. You can’t cut them down, so theoretically it’s possible.

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by flanagaj

Anyway post some pics of the issue. I've not used the thermally broken lintels before but have used deep cavity lintels before. Imagine same issue?

These will work fine. If you are concerned you could get a hose or bucket and pour water over it. It will come straight out of the weeps.