[anuvanoob]

Our brick front porch has 8 to 10 holes throughout and the holes range from 3 to 8 inches wide and 1 to 2 bricks high (they're common bricks). I suspect rodents are climbing in and getting into the basement crawl space, so I want to cover or patch the holes to prevent that. The brick is painted so I don't care about aesthetics - the fix doesn't have to blend in/look good. How can I easily patch/cover these holes securely so rodents can't get in?

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[Nealtw]

Do you have a basement or a crawlspace, are you sure theses spaces are connected?

Some wood structures need venting. Is the floor of the porch wood?

 

[Mystriss]

We use metal mesh/wire product over the vent holes in our basement. Just make sure you get a "fine" enough mesh to deal with your particular breed of rodent. We have to use something pretty close to oven vent screen to keep the teeny tiny shrews out.

 

[SPS-1]

If somebody has removed bricks, the solution would be to replace the bricks.

But somebody did not remove the bricks just because they were bored one day. Why do you think they were removed?

FYI --- Brick and mortar are not at all waterproof. Depends on the brick type, but water can soak through rather quickly. So a brick wall should have weep holes at the bottom.

Laying a couple of bricks on top of a wall is not too difficult. Laying them in bottom of wall takes a little more skill (last brick anyways). Looks easy when they do it on This Old House, but expect a bit more of a challenge. You should be able to find plenty of YouTube videos though.

 

[huesmann]

Stuff them with stainless steel wool. But I doubt even plugging these holes will prevent your rodents from getting in.

 

[joecaption]

Please post a picture so we can see what your seeing.
I've seen this done before instead of installing real foundation vents.

 

[anuvanoob]

Please post a picture so we can see what your seeing.
I've seen this done before instead of installing real foundation vents.

Photos attached. The porch was essentially in this condition when we bought the house (8+ years ago), though it may have gotten worst - I don't remember there being this many holes/gaps or this big of holes.

I'm just looking for a quick but somewhat strong and lasting fix to patch/cover the holes until we replace this porch (sometime in the next 5 years).

 

[Nealtw]

Save your money and change it in the next 3 years. That looks like a repair that went the way of the first damage.

 

[anuvanoob]

I understand, but I just need the gaps filled for now - I saw my first rodent IN the basement (shares a wall with the crawl space) for the first time since buying this house so the trouble has already started.

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[Nealtw]

I would look after the wall in the basement. You have a fair sized gap to the siding that would be a mess to plug up,

 

[Old Thomas]

Put some low expanding foam in the holes till you can demolish and rebuild it.

 

[maxwellerich9]

I think looking in the basement, might be a better idea than trying to fix it from outside.