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I would like to fix the problems that are show in the picture below. Basically when it rains the water pools near the corner of my house in the two areas circled in this picture. The result is that the water gets to the wall and due to concrete capillarity it goes up on the wall as you can see. It probably goes down in the basement as well, I still have to check the wall behind the drywall in that inside corner area.

I used the level to see if the patio is level in that area and it is not. How do I fix this? Should I try to reset just the bricks for that area or should I go deeper and fix the layers under the patio? Is there any less intrusive way to verify if the patio's bed was correctly graded? Is there any way to add a membrane under the bricks in that area to prevent the water from getting to the wall?

enter image description here
Click for larger image

Tester101
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MiniMe
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  • The stucco installation appears to lack a weep screed. In the US, this is inconsistent with the most contemporary building codes (and sound practice for a somewhat longer time). –  Oct 12 '14 at 22:52
  • This house was built in '58. Maybe that explains what you just mentioned above – MiniMe Oct 13 '14 at 00:30
  • Looks like there may have been some stucco work somewhat more recently than that. Was the house originally stucco? Is the substrate frame or masonry? –  Oct 13 '14 at 14:02
  • Ther are a couple of other houses "dressed" like this. An apron of stucco and above that it is brick veneer. I am not sure what you mean by substrate. Under stucco seems to be some coarser cement coating applied directly on cider blocks – MiniMe Oct 13 '14 at 22:09

2 Answers2

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Two questions: 1) Where does the water come from? And, 2) Where else could you send it?

First thought is that you may need to do some grading and/or install some sort of french drain system to help that water run off to somewhere else... or perhaps intercept it before it gets 'cornered' if possible. Also, those edgings around the patio appear to stand a bit above the level of the patio itself... if I'm seeing that right that can't be helping.

Hard to say much more without a broader sense of the lay of the land. Again, the water needs to go somewhere, and that's the first decision.

far as the low spots in the patio themselves that may just be the result of some settling if the material beneath wasn't perfectly compacted. So you might pull up the low-lying bricks and tamp in some additional sand to get those spots up to grade. You might also consider a narrow gutter around the edge to catch water and direct it somewhere away from your wall. Again, much depends on the overall grading of your lot.

ArtB
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  • Here are links to two pictures used in my previous questions related to my project. Most of my recent questions are about various ways to fix the problem shown in the above picture. I am working on two fronts: 1) trying to see how big the problem is and 2) I am trying to learn about various ways to fix the problem. http://i.stack.imgur.com/vkdkh.png http://i.imgur.com/u0iIKPX.png

    The grading of the lot is not relevant since the problem is localized on that corner. There are no other problems on the rest of the wall along the joint between the patio and the wall

     – MiniMe Oct 13 '14 at 00:44
  • The second picture shows you the layout of the lot. The french drain can be discharged either in the sewer or in the lawn just north of that corner in the picture. Currently the city is trying to disconnect the gutters from the sewers Many houses have them connected that way. I am not sure if the restriction is valid for french drains but I assume that this is the case, otherwise the homeowners will discharge the gutters in the frechdrain and the french drain in the sewer :-) Ideally I would like to discharge this to the storm sewer on the street but that if too far (bottom of the picture) – MiniMe Oct 13 '14 at 00:54
  • Sorry I missed this question, here is the asnwer to your Q#1 The water comes from rain. – MiniMe Oct 13 '14 at 01:35
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Prying up a few bricks isn't that intrusive. I'd obviously do it from the outer edge. Pull up 3 or 4 bricks and see what's underneath. There should be 1" or so of sand, and then compacted stone. If it's just dirt, then yes, you likely want to pull out the entire patio and redo it. If there is a proper base, however, you could likely pull up the bricks in the back (towards the house) and then lay down some more sand to get a proper slope. Remember your patio shouldn't be level...it should be sloped.

The bigger concern is that lip on the border. I've never seen such a thing and can't imagine why it was put there. That's just trapping water. I'd go ahead and pull that up and put in a standard plastic patio edging.

DA01
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