Patio Slopes Toward House

Sandra Schumacher lives up in the land of billions of barrels of oil better known as Bismarck, North Dakota.

She's got a problem with here patio because it slopes towards her house.

Allow her to explain.

"We have a 10 x 12 concrete patio that has sloped toward the house causing leakage during rainstorms.

Could we pour a new concrete patio over the top with the proper slope (and enlarging to 14 x 12) or is it best to tear out the existing patio and start fresh?"

Here's my answer:

Sandra, you can do an overlay and not take out the existing patio.

If you go this route here's what I'd make sure of:

• the surface of the patio next to the house must be at least 6 inches down from the bottom of the first row of siding or whatever is the exterior covering of the house
• the new patio concrete must be a minimum of 4 inches thick and contain 1/2-inch steel reinforcing bars set on 2-foot centers going both directions - failure to do this will produce a crack where the larger patio extends over the existing one

Be sure to READ all of my past concrete installation columns so you don't have a premature failure of the product. CLICK HERE to read them.

CLICK this image and listen to the first story - Vic has a gorgeous patio on the back of his house. One part of the patio has sunken down. I've got the fix.

Tim Carter

Tim built custom homes and did ultra-custom remodeling for 20+ years before launching his Ask the Builder media presence. He was selected as one of the Big 50 by Remodeling magazine in 1993. This award gave birth to Ask the Builder in October 1993. Tim also operates https://DrawPlumbingPlans.com. His @askthebuilder YouTube channel was the first home improvement channel on YouTube.