Patio Drainage- Redirecting Water Flow

by Denise Proctor
(Montgomery, AL)

This is a question regarding patio drainage.

I recently purchased a town home and the courtyard patio is angled towards the house instead of the street. How can I redirect the flow of the water without tearing out my entire patio?

ANSWER

Hi Denise,
Since land should be graded and sloped away form a house, the only way to solve this problem to achieve this would be to lift up the patio and re-lay it. I just had to do the same thing at my own house. If this is pavers, it's not that difficult. Of course concrete is another story.

There is another option to consider. You would have to pick up the patio (if pavers) or cut out a strip (of concrete...a landscaper can do this with a special saw) and lay a french drain. This is a perforated pipe, a pipe with holes in it, which allows the water against the house to go right into the pipe. This pipe is then sloped and led away from the house, typically to a lower elevation elsewhere. It actually connects to a solid pipe led underground to a particular destination.

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I would approach the Board at your community and discuss the problem. This patio should have been approved, whether done when the townhouse was first built or later, and it never should have been pitched towards the house.