need help evaluating patio work (photo)

patio_newbie

Hello everyone, we hired a contractor 3 days ago to do the flagstone patio on our small backyard. Please see result at the photo (the link is below the message).
Before the backyard was sloped away from the house. The base of the new patio is made of crushed granite (compacted) and approx. 1 inch layer of washed Sand and Portland Cement 4 to 1 ratio.
Our worries are such:
1. we asked for patio and it looks like a deck. Should the patio be raised as high from the ground level?
2. Since we live in a heavily raining/flooded area an appropriate drainage is important. Before the patio, our backyard was slopped away from the house towards the end of the yard. After the patio was built, the backyard level is now higher up (closer to our house slab). The patio level is sloped towards the small drainage hole in the middle at all edges. Is it ok?
3. Will the structure hold itself together? No retaining walls, only stones plastered to the sides. We thought it should be dug down into the soil and the flagstones should be at the same level as the grass was before. Now you could see that it it is almost a foot up above the ground at the far end of the yard. (You could see in comparison with the AC unit)
Please reply soon as we have to pay him on Monday, May 24 and need to make sure everything is done right or protest.
THANK YOU.

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Scuba_Dave

What instruction did you give him as to how you wanted it built ?
What did the contract state he would do ?
Where does the drainage go to ?
Did he install that ?
Usually you just slope it away from the house

patio_newbie

- it was agreed to build a patio just like at the picture in his portfolio; the pictured patios had no elevation

-the drainage hole leads to the drainage pipe installed by the builder. The pipe goes subsurface under the whole house to the drain ditch at the curb of street at the front of the house. the drainage pipe diameter is approx. 4 inch

Re-phrasing the questions - does the construction seems to be strong enough to hold itself (no retaining walls, only stones plastered to the sides) and not to cause flood in the back yard especially for the heavy rains (Houston TX)?

Thank you.

2 threads on same issue merged
Moderator

Brickie

No. How long of a warranty do you have?

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patio_newbie

Hi Brickie, thanks for asking,
we have 12 month of warranty with a clause 'excluding owners negligence'

Charlie123

Personally i would have insisted that he dug out the area and then lay the base and mud and stone so that it would be level to the exisitng grass as you said.

Maybe he thought he'dd save time and money by not digging all that dirt out and paying to dump it.

I also think that the current "deck" or raised patio they built needs good solid walls with foundations to hold all that dirt etc back + when it rains heavy will turn to mud and the sides will slope away.

If he was a good builder he'd know to slope the whole structure away from the house to an appropriate drainage - even to the existing grass.

I'd say your AC is in danger too.

Kurtzilla

Patio, Newbie. That patio should be retained by block, or by a foundation wall that can be veneered. From what I can see in the photo, it's doomed for failure over time. If you need additional info on patio / paver installation, I have published several article on proper installation procedures. Here's a link to get you over to one of the articles for base design and installation. http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=3087674. You can look up the entire series of articles on site. It's applications like that, that gives good contractors a bad rap.