Decks, Patios, Porches and Docks - Raised Patio - Please Help!!
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Amanda
04-06-09, 03:09 PM
Hi, I am new to this forum and I have a few questions that I am hoping someone will be able to help me with..
I recently purchased my first home in June 2008. It had a deck that was about 25 years old in the back which was sorely in need of replacement. So, without doing much research, I decided to replace it with a raised patio. The work was done by a contractor last summer. Toward the end of the project, we realized that the slope was not completely correct and water was pooling in one area (not touching the house). So, I discussed this with my contractor and we decided to wait until this spring to address the issue as he said the rest of the patio floor may need to be adjusted due to some settling that might occur.
The patio has a retaining wall, and surrounding planter boxes and is about 6 feet high - there is also a half wall going around the top and a railing above that to get the height up to code. Our property is sloping and thus, the back of the house has 2 sliding glass doors off of the kitchen that lead right out to the patio (which is why something raised was necessary). Although the house was originally built in 1904, the entire back and side of the house was an addition that was made in the mid 1980's. The entire house has been well-cared for and maintained, in general.
I have two questions on all of this:
1. I have read that the house itself should be water-proofed before putting up the patio. I am not sure that this was done. I am hoping that this would not be an issue as it would be too late to do anything now (I assume). The part of the house (underneath the extension) only leads to an outdoor entry crawl space (there was no addition to the basement when the addition to the house was put on); so I was thinking that this might eliminate the issue of any water seeping into the house as the actual basement wall is about 15 to 20 feet away from the wall to which the patio is up against. Please let me know your thoughts on this.
2. The patio floor did settle about an inch, so we are going to re-do the entire floor of the patio this spring - hopefully it will remain at the same level this go around! During the original construction, we did not include a drain pipe, but were relying on the slope for drainage. In general this worked fine, except for the one area right before the steps going down where the floor dipped a bit and water had pooled. Is there any other way to facilitate draining at this stage? Will the slope be sufficient? I am reading onlin that it is 1%..
Thank you for your advice and suggestions!!
I recently purchased my first home in June 2008. It had a deck that was about 25 years old in the back which was sorely in need of replacement. So, without doing much research, I decided to replace it with a raised patio. The work was done by a contractor last summer. Toward the end of the project, we realized that the slope was not completely correct and water was pooling in one area (not touching the house). So, I discussed this with my contractor and we decided to wait until this spring to address the issue as he said the rest of the patio floor may need to be adjusted due to some settling that might occur.
The patio has a retaining wall, and surrounding planter boxes and is about 6 feet high - there is also a half wall going around the top and a railing above that to get the height up to code. Our property is sloping and thus, the back of the house has 2 sliding glass doors off of the kitchen that lead right out to the patio (which is why something raised was necessary). Although the house was originally built in 1904, the entire back and side of the house was an addition that was made in the mid 1980's. The entire house has been well-cared for and maintained, in general.
I have two questions on all of this:
1. I have read that the house itself should be water-proofed before putting up the patio. I am not sure that this was done. I am hoping that this would not be an issue as it would be too late to do anything now (I assume). The part of the house (underneath the extension) only leads to an outdoor entry crawl space (there was no addition to the basement when the addition to the house was put on); so I was thinking that this might eliminate the issue of any water seeping into the house as the actual basement wall is about 15 to 20 feet away from the wall to which the patio is up against. Please let me know your thoughts on this.
2. The patio floor did settle about an inch, so we are going to re-do the entire floor of the patio this spring - hopefully it will remain at the same level this go around! During the original construction, we did not include a drain pipe, but were relying on the slope for drainage. In general this worked fine, except for the one area right before the steps going down where the floor dipped a bit and water had pooled. Is there any other way to facilitate draining at this stage? Will the slope be sufficient? I am reading onlin that it is 1%..
Thank you for your advice and suggestions!!