The Brew Cabin

I'm in the process of having my patio and pathway relayed with India stone flags and am concerned that the bloke doing the work, wants the fall of the flags towards the house.

I currently have concrete slabs laid, which has the fall going away from the house but this has always caused a problem as water collects. This is no doubt because they just meet the lawn and there does not seem to be anywhere for the excess water to go too, so suspect this is why he wants to change the slope.

If the new flags are laid with the water running towards the house will this cause me any problems either in the short or long term?

Also, not sure if this is the correct place to ask but here goes. I'm thinking of installing outside lights in the garden and will need to be able to access the cables under the new flags. I was thinking of using plastic piping and then feeding armoured cabling through it. Is this suitable or can someone recommend a better way?

Great site by the way.

Cheers

Mike

The flags should fall away from the house unless some drainage system has been installed between the paving and the house, in which case, they can 'backfall'. Has your contractor explained why simply backfalling them will not result in any of the drainage problems you experienced when the previous flags fell towards the lawn?

It may be that a simple gravel-filled land-drain laid on the lawn-edge of the paving is sufficient to deal with the previous ponding. If the ground is just compacted, then the land drain might be all that's required, but if there is a more extensive problem with poorly drained ground, then perhaps the land drain can be connected up to the SW system at some convenient point.

Whatever happens, simply backfalling the flags towards the house solves nowt and can only cause problems in the longer term.

For your cabling, what is needed is a duct - a 40mm diameter length of plastic pipe that can be laid underneath the paving and a cable threaded through. Have a look at the Ducting page.

Thanks for the reply. The contractor said that as there is already a "gravel strip" all around the house this would be sufficient for drainage of the patio/pathway. I'm not entirley convinced hence the reason for placing the question.

I had thought of having the flags laid so that they fell away from the house as at present, with an edge of some sort butting up to the lawn. Between the flags and edging I'd thought of having a layer of gravel/chippings to try and resolve the drainage problem. Is this what you would consider a land-drain? If not could you advise what I would need to do to accomplish this?

Sorry if these sound like basic questions, but this is one area of DIY I've never dealt with and don't want to have a bodged job just for the sake of a few extra pounds.

I've taken on board the suggestions on the "Ducting" page and it's as I thought.

The gravel strip around the building perimeter is the notorious 'Splash Strip' which I've commented on previously. Suffice to say I'm not a fan.

They can work as drainage aids as long as the sub-grade is permeable, but when they are laid over clay or other hard ground, they are a waste of time. The fact that your lawn couldn't cope with the small amount of water sent in its direction by the previous path suggests that the ground is over-compacted or impermeable.

A pavement edge land-drain is simply a trench, roughly 300-450mm deep, in which is laid a simple 80mm dia perforated pipe of the plastic variety, and then backfilled with a clean gravel. It can be topped off with a deco gravel of cobbles as required. Ideally, it should be connected to an outfall, such as a soakaway, ditch, or as a last resort, a SW system.