Need opinions on recent landscape work

[redblack]

I recently hired a contractor to finish my backyard and after speaking to a few company's i settled on one with middle of the pack pricing. I was wondering if i could get some opinions on the work he had done. the wall and patio looks great but im not too sure if its okay to have the patio sitting right underneath the siding. He needs to come back this week to touch up the grading on the side near the fence and finish the stone cap on the wall.

So what do you think, will i run into problems down the road with water against the siding? it looks like it is sloped for water drainage.

[spikerS]

Is the weeping tile your drain for the downspout, or is it run along the house under your patio?

Either way, the siding should be overlapping the top of the basement cribbing by i would guess 6-8 inches, so i would not worry too much about seepage into the basement.

assuming the bottom of the siding is 100% level, it looks like the drainage from the patio is side to side. Probably won't be an issue as long as the rest of the patio is sloped away from the house.

In the end, as long as the patio slopes away from the house, you should not have anything to worry about.

[JordanLotoski]

Looks good. The patio looks like it has a high point in the middle so you might get water pooling against your deck when it rains...I wouldn't worry so much about it being close to the siding.

Also on second clance it looks like the patio slopes towers the house. Could just be the picture. Go pour a few liters of water in the dead centre and see which way the water drains

[AndyL]

Got a level?

Somethings off - looks like the concrete slopes towards the house, or your wood deck is sloped away from the house like it should be and the concrete's level front to back - that side to side slope is silly - running water into the wood deck?

I'm not a fan - You'll need to shovel it off in winter to keep the snow from penetrating the siding (think ice dam like on a roof) ; I thought there was a code about siding needing to be up 6" above grade (like the side of your house) that'd include the wood deck. Did they peel back the siding at all and add anything behind?

[masoncgy]

I would also advise checking the drainage too... you don't want water pooling up in that corner against the deck and house... it should drain away.

Perhaps it's just the perspective from this angle, but it looks like it slopes down from the centre and water would run into that corner.

If so, have it brought up.

[redblack]

i built the deck last year and put a nice slope away from the house. After putting the hose in the center of the patio, the water drains from side to side (about half the water will go to the deck and half to the grass). I will ask the contractor about possibly changing the drainage so that it doesnt slope towards the deck.

Does anyone know for sure that it is against code to have the patio/deck under the siding? When i built the deck, i just used the header that came with the house to mount my joists.

[ddduke]

Originally posted by redblack
Does anyone know for sure that it is against code to have the patio/deck under the siding? When i built the deck, i just used the header that came with the house to mount my joists.

That's exactly what it's for, you're perfectly fine.

Don't take what AndyL says seriously, he seems to be talking out of his ass with no real knowledge.

The job looks good, it definitely does not look perfectly level but the last thing you have to worry about is it leaking into your house.

[AndyL]

Um, yeah... Why don't you read the gentek and royal installation manuals - both say keep >6" above grade.

Wanna see some pictures from a few commercial (condo) projects where the siding is being ripped off - because it did go to grade; and the building envelope consultant failed it?

Didn't say it'd leak into the house - did say it wasn't what I'd accept. Not sure on the code - as I said - and I don't have the desire to go chase down my binders of the '06 code and spend hours hunting.

It's in the install manuals, doesn't mean it's in the building code - building code tends to be minimum standards - not common sense.

[ddduke]

I was talking about the deck, not the patio.

As for how close his patio is to the siding, I don't know a thing about that. I also don't even understand why the grade was built up so high and close to the siding, I've never seen such a thing.

[AndyL]

?! So you say I'm talking out my ass because I would expect a concrete guy to not slope a piece of concrete to drain against a wooden deck?
:facepalm:

[freshprince1]

As has been said, be 100% sure the patio slopes away from the house. I agree that the side-to-side is a little funny and would be suprised if he did this on purpose. if it slopes away from the house, you don't need side-to-side slope.

I poured a concrete patio last year 16'x12' with a one inch slope from the house to the grass. Zero issues.