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Wondering if I need to do any waterproofing against the brick and foundation of my house inside the wooden planter box I built below. I plan to have soil a few inches above the foundation/brick interface and would be a bit concerned about introducing constant moisture against the house like that. As you can see in the old pic, there was a brick box there before which inspired my idea to enlarge. There was no waterproofing there previously and the bottom of the old box appears to be cement below a few inches of soil. I could also shrink the box down to a height more similar to the original that was present when I moved in. Thanks in advance. enter image description here

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In TX the bottom course of brick have weep holes,which would not work. Brick is not intended to be wet (under soil surface), so I think there is some risk. I think it would be worth putting plastic sheet against the foundation and first two rows of brick. The brick in the "before" picture looks a different color , like it was painted?

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  • We’ve “mortar-washed” for a different look since the original picture, but the first few bricks are no different than those above them. I was surprised to see that the old planter put the soil level above the first brick, but maybe that was a mistake. I’ll look into some waterproof fabric. Thanks for the input.
    – Phildosaurus
    Commented Apr 19, 2020 at 13:35
  • plastic degrades over time. i would not raise the soil level at all. you will get more splash onto the bricks and windows.
    – flowerbug
    Commented Apr 25, 2020 at 14:35
  • if there is concrete below a few inches of dirt that is not even worth keeping or using IMO. in other words that location would be better used for potted plants. mulch them well to keep them from splashing dirt on the bricks/windows.
    – flowerbug
    Commented Apr 25, 2020 at 14:37

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