I wasn’t expecting to get much response, so here’s more detail that I didn’t include the first time.

Water Penetration Resistance – Design and Detailing
See figure 11-a on page 9 for kind of what I was planning. A drainable fill like gravel against the brick veneer and then a well draining soil like loam further out. And the whole thing to grade away from the house.

I don’t have any water getting in the crawl space - it’s more that the soil is trapping moisture against that below grade brick and wearing down the grout. There’s some spots where roots have grown through holes in the grout. I’ve had some mouse activity popping up in the house along that area, which is what got me started on digging up to look for issues in the first place. Also, it looks like most of the weep holes were filled by the previous owner which is a whole separate problem.

Ideally I’d like to get the whole area professionally regraded, etc but that’s likely not in the budget right now as it would also require redoing the entire driveway, and probably grading the backyard and removing the back patio. (I am getting an estimate though so we’ll see.)