A paved surface has one hydraulic job: get water off itself and somewhere sensible. Two percent of fall does that, which is about twenty millimetres per metre and is almost invisible to the eye. Below that, surface tension holds water in the joints, and that is where every other problem starts.
Putting slope on a surface is straightforward. Deciding which direction is the part that needs thinking about, because water moved off a patio has to arrive somewhere, and arriving at a neighbour's fence line, against your own foundation, or into a low corner of lawn that then stays soft all season is not a solution.
So the work starts by shooting levels across the whole area and the ground beyond it: what fall exists now, how much is available before the door sill or a step limits it, and where the water can honestly be sent. Sometimes there is enough room to re-grade and be done.
Sometimes there is not, and the answer is a channel drain piped to daylight instead. Knowing which of those you are in takes a level and half an hour, and it is the difference between a repair and a relocation of the problem.
Levels across the paving and the ground beyond it, because the destination matters as much as the fall itself does.
Check what limits you
Door sills, steps and existing structures cap how much correction is available, and that is measured rather than assumed.
Re-grade the base
Base rebuilt and compacted to a consistent fall rather than levelled flat, which is what leaves water standing in the joints.
Confirm it runs
Once the surface is back, it gets flooded and watched, because a grade that works on paper and one that works wet are not always the same.
Neighbours And Lawns
Water has to arrive somewhere sensible
Redirecting runoff onto a neighbouring property is how a paving job becomes a dispute, and sending it into a low corner of your own lawn just moves the soft ground rather than fixing it.
Part of a grading quote is saying where the water ends up, and if there is no good answer we say that too. See how a channel drain gives water somewhere to go when the grade cannot, what pooling water does to a base meanwhile, and how sunken patios follow from it.
About two percent, which is twenty millimetres of fall per metre. It is almost invisible to look at and it is the difference between shedding water and holding it.
Probably. Level means water sits, and surface tension holds it in the joints long enough to work down into the base and start taking the fines out.
Then a channel drain is the answer instead. We measure what is available against the door sill before promising a re-grade will solve it.
That is part of the quote. Not onto a neighbour and not into a low corner of your own lawn, and if there is no good destination we say so rather than guess.
Over the area being corrected, yes, because the fall is built into the base rather than the surface. The same stone goes back down afterwards.
No. The fall we build is about two percent, roughly a finger's width over a metre. Furniture sits flat and a ball will not roll. You only notice it when it rains, which is the point.
