Patio slope towards house

joemoran7

Hi - I have a question about a patio that a tradesmen is currently laying for me.

It is halfway through being installed and we haven’t noticed any problems yet, but on doing a little bit of searching of the internet (just so I am a little bit more educated on the topic when he asks me questions), I have a question/concern 

The patio slopes towards the house (average of about a 3% slope) and a drain has been installed along the length of the house by the rear bifold doors.

Reading online it seems to say a patio should never slope towards the house, but I just wondered if it is OK in our situation given the drain installed?

Thank you in advance 

stuart45

It's obviously better for a patio to run away from the house walls, normally between 1/60  to 1/80. However if there is no alternative then a drain must be used. What's the plan for retaining the earth?

twopenny

Given the size of the patio that's not bad.
And providing you keep the drain clear you shouldn't have a problem and will have a beautiful patio.

With so much done already the cost to remove with potential to damage, clean the slabs, take up the stuff underneath and remove soil to begin again + labour and time you are going to run into a lot of argument, negotiation and the weather will be against you. So huge delay into next year when they have the time and weather.
You may find you need replacement slabs and the colour doesn't match next year.

Mine in ground like yours are level with the tiniest of slope away and do just fine.

How did you guage the 3%? The slabs have an uneven surface. Is that over the whole thing?
And why is it bothering you at this stage?

35har1old

joemoran7 said:

Hi - I have a question about a patio that a tradesmen is currently laying for me.

It is halfway through being installed and we haven’t noticed any problems yet, but on doing a little bit of searching of the internet (just so I am a little bit more educated on the topic when he asks me questions), I have a question/concern 

The patio slopes towards the house (average of about a 3% slope) and a drain has been installed along the length of the house by the rear bifold doors.

Reading online it seems to say a patio should never slope towards the house, but I just wondered if it is OK in our situation given the drain installed?

Thank you in advance 

How much have you from finish level to damp course on house

stuart45

Looking at the photo, the layout isn't the best. It's full of crossroads(crossed joints), so it could be the slab layer is quite inexperienced.

JohnJ76

stuart45 said:

Looking at the photo, the layout isn't the best. It's full of crossroads(crossed joints), so it could be the slab layer is quite inexperienced.

its not the worst I've seen but yes, they shouldnt have so many straight lines in what should be a (planned) random layout.  

With the grass raised relative to the patio I imagine they have taken the fall back to the house rather than dig further down into the lawn.  How is this going o be finished? if they put a hard edge in there make sure there is provision for drainage because if there is any slope towards the lawn and they install a hard boundary edge, you'll get puddles with nowhere to run.

I wouldnt worry about the fall towards the house, its not ideal but often unavoidable.  as long as your DPC isnt compromised and the linear drain actually runs to a drain or a soakaway I imagine it will be fine. 

woody7777

What is wrong with the layout, and what are crossroads?

CSI_Yorkshire

Where you have four joins between slabs all meeting at the same place - so it looks like a cross.

Nothing wrong automatically, it's what you would get if you did it like a chessboard and lots of patios are like that - but if it's supposed to be a more random pattern then there are usually less joins like that.

ThisIsWeird

I'm guessing they laid the slope towards the house as they had an available drain point there - where does that new gully drain in to? If they'd sloped back towards the garden, they'd presumably have had to install new drains from there - a bigger job - and also more unsightly, I think?
But just guessing.

TELLIT01

Where does that drain discharge to?  Hopefully it is either connected into the mains drainage or a soakaway has been dug somewhere well away from the house and not beneath the patio.

stuart45

woody7777 said:

What is wrong with the layout, and what are crossroads?

Creating Random Layouts | Pavingexpert
This probably explains it better than I can.