Nightmare Patio

[chriselevate]

To cut a long story short... the patio that we've had redone (and spent a lot of money on) the builder has laid wrong. Lots of good points but fundamentally, he's not used the Bradstone Slurry Primer that we bought on the backs for the Porcelain slabs when laying them and therefore they are all now loose.

Not happy but there's not a lot I can do as he's not willing to sort it or accept that it's an issue.

As this is the case, I've deliberately not gone ahead and jointed them with the resin otherwise they would have been even more of a nightmare to lift and re lay!

So, this time I'm having the work done by a Bradstone Assured Installer but sadly having to pay for this work to be done.

As it's all coming up I wanted to seek advice on a couple of things so thought I'd reach out to you guys in the attempt that you can help me? I don't want to have it all re done and find it's not what we want.

1. My kitchen and lounge have step down onto the patio as it's been made 2 bricks below the DPC. This is ok but the step down is quite large. I know 2 bricks below DPC is the optimum though. I've seen a few places where they have built the patio to the same level as the inside. How can this be achieved? Is it by using an aco drain between the property and the patio and having this run into a soak away?
2. If this was to be done then there would need to be 2 brick levels of height made up on the patio. Would this be achieved with MOT hardcore?
3. What are you thoughts with using block paving around the perimeter to "frame" the patio?
4. What are you thoughts on using gravel/decorative strips around all sides of a patio? Good for drainage/aesthetics?

I'm sure this will bring up/raise a load more questions but I thought I'd start the ball rolling first.

Thanks for your time and help on here.

 

[Ian H]

I personally wouldn’t want gravel because I would expect it to hold water.

I’d go with block paving, an aco or both.

 

[lonner]

Talk to your contractor, if he's worth his salt you'll be very happy with his advice.

You have a lot of concerns so difficult to advise without pics and more details.

Most approved contractors are good, just make sure he is genuine.

 

[chriselevate]

Landscape gardener contractor you mean?

The reason for asking on here is that I can’t find anyone local who is able to advise correctly. This is the reason the last guy promised the world has left it in such a state.

If things were as simple as paying someone to do a proper and quality job then I’d be happy. Sadly it’s not like that so that’s why I turn to forums to gauge what to look out for and for other opinions.

 

[foxhole]

We considered flush levels but it has the disadvantage of easily allowing all garden debri to blow into the house very easily.

 

[chriselevate]

Yeah I guess that’s a downside. As ours has a pretty patio outside we should be ok with that.