I would like to fix the problems that are show in the picture below. Basically when it rains the water pools near the corner of my house in the two areas circled in this picture. The result is that the water gets to the wall and due to concrete capillarity it goes up on the wall as you can see. It probably goes down in the basement as well, I still have to check the wall behind the drywall in that inside corner area.
I used the level to see if the patio is level in that area and it is not.
How do I fix this? Should I try to reset just the bricks for that area or should I go deeper and fix the layers under the patio?
Is there any less intrusive way to verify if the patio's bed was correctly graded?
Is there any way to add a membrane under the bricks in that area to prevent the water from getting to the wall?
Click for larger image
Best Answer
Two questions: 1) Where does the water come from? And, 2) Where else could you send it?
First thought is that you may need to do some grading and/or install some sort of french drain system to help that water run off to somewhere else... or perhaps intercept it before it gets 'cornered' if possible. Also, those edgings around the patio appear to stand a bit above the level of the patio itself... if I'm seeing that right that can't be helping.
Hard to say much more without a broader sense of the lay of the land. Again, the water needs to go somewhere, and that's the first decision.
far as the low spots in the patio themselves that may just be the result of some settling if the material beneath wasn't perfectly compacted. So you might pull up the low-lying bricks and tamp in some additional sand to get those spots up to grade. You might also consider a narrow gutter around the edge to catch water and direct it somewhere away from your wall. Again, much depends on the overall grading of your lot.