The Brew Cabin

Desperately looking for advice. Our patio is poorly installed, the surface is uneven and the water stays at several low spots and makes water puddles. It is slate on top of concrete. The contaractor cannot repair it. Indeed, when they did try, they damaged the surface of slate. Are their any solution to this problem? Thanks in advance

There are no 'quick fixes' for such a problem. Slate on concrete is more or less impermeable, so there's nothing you can do to alleviate the ponding problem other than lift the paving and relay it to falls so that the surface water is directed to disposal points, such as gullies or the garden, etc.

It's not so much that the contractor cannot repair it, it's more a case of they can't be bothered to make it right!

Thank you very much. We are the first-time homeowner and know nothing about these home projects. This site is really helpful to us.

Our contractor is a garden expert and we initially asked him to do our garden and then added the patio project. It seems that he is not experienced in patio. He did a beautiful garden, but the patio is a dissapointment.

The contractor is now proposing to grind the patio. Is this the correct thing to do? Can this solve the ponding problem? What will the slate patio look after the grinding? Should we insist him to relay the patio instead? Should the entire patio be relay or only the puddle areas? I am concerned whether it produces the right slope if only relay the puddle area. Three sides of our patio are surrounded by lawn and the other side is attached to the house.

Many thanks!

Tianshu commented....
Our contractor is a garden expert and we initially asked him to do our garden and then added the patio project. It seems that he is not experienced in patio. He did a beautiful garden, but the patio is a dissapointment.

The moral of the story is that, just because someone can plant flowers and lay turf, it does not mean they can lay paving. You're not the only one to make this error - I hear it time and time again..."Oh, they did such a lovely job of the garden , so I thought they'd be ideal to lay the driveway, but..."

If you employed a painter to re-gloss all the windows, doors and fascias of the house, would you use them to to plumb-in your new cooker, just because they did a good job on the bargeboards?

Each man/woman to his/her trade! :)


The contractor is now proposing to grind the patio. Is this the correct thing to do?

NO! It will make a right mess of the slate, rendering it useless and covering the garden in a dangerous, lung-clogging dust!

Can this solve the ponding problem?

Possibly, but it is more likely to cause more problems than it solves, as well as being very expensive, environmentally-unfriendly and somewhat hit-and-miss.


What will the slate patio look after the grinding?

The area that has been grinded will have a radically different surface texture to the rest of the patio, and that difference is permanent. The only way to hide the treated area, is to grind the entire patio, which is just being silly!

Should we insist him to relay the patio instead? Should the entire patio be relay or only the puddle areas?

Yes - re-lay the affected areas and see if that cures the problem. There's no need to re-lay areas that drain adequately at the moment, just the areas that pond and any other areas that need to be adjusted to ensure the surface water has a clear escape route to a disposal point. So, for example, if there was a 1 metre diameter puddle 3 metres from the edge of the patio, the puddle area plus the 2 metres between the puddle and the edge would need to be re-laid to ensure the water can escape in future.

This 'contractor' has already made a mess of the patio, and is now offering to turn it into a total disaster. They should realise and accept the limitations of their talents. They are out of their depth - they do not know how to lay paving properly, nor how to put it right when they've got it wrong. They would be best advised to bring in a specialist to correct the problem. In the long run, it's probably cheaper and quicker to rely on someone who actually knows what they're doing!

Dear Tony:

Thank you very much for detailed advice. This forum has been very helpful for us. I was searching the web all night and cannot find a single entry on solving the ponding problem.

All the best,

Tianshu