When it rains my patio collects water in a couple of spots close to the wall of the house. The wall is now presenting external efflorescence and cracks of the external cement coating. (not sure if anything is wrong under that coating other than excessive humidity).
It is clear that I have to fix the draining for this patio but I don't know what is the best way to do it. Here are the options that I am considering:
- install a frech drain between patio and wall -the problem with this is that I need to discharge that drain somewhere. For that I might
need to extend the french drain around another wall - re-grade the patio by adding more sand under the areas where the water pools
- or by removing everything (gravel,sand, pavers) and re-grading the soil
that is the base for the above layers
Which of the above would you recommend? Do you have any other ideas ?
Best Answer
Best is probably a combination of french drain and pulling it all up and regrading the base. Also the most hassle and expense, but in terms of function, the best option. And you would then have the option of running the drain under the patio, if that helped with discharging it.
The individual pieces of that that you have thought of are somewhere else along the expense and hassle line, as well as the effectiveness line. Obviously pulling up a few pavers and repacking under them is least expensive, but it will help the water to move away - but if the patio as a whole is not sloped to drain well, it won't help much if you are just moving the puddles around. So, if just a few spots are low, it might be all that's needed, but if filling one low spot will simply result in another, regrading the whole thing looks better eventually.