Patio Suggestions

Well...I screwed myself pretty solid. The wife likes the look of the slab for the shed:
and therefore wants to fix the patio out back. She wants to plant some stuff out there and be able to put out the new dog house.
I'm pretty set on how to do the pavers but my question is how to fix the step. There is a slab 85"x84" and the step is part of that slab. The subsiding soil has tipped/slanted the slab away from the house a bit:


I can pull up and level the rest of the patio- but that slab is 2000lbs of concrete at least....Any ideas?? I can take any other photos that'll help...

Right now I've kicked around cutting the step apart from the slab, leveling the step and then covering the slab. Wife wants to just brick over the whole step...Not sure how.

 

What about mudjacking or slabjacking? I'm not an expert on it, but I've heard it can be about half the cost of having new concrete poured. (Like most things, I'm sure cost varies by what part of the country you're in and how "complicated" the job is.)

 

I'd demo everything out to do it right.
Looks like you have some wicked slope, there. I'd go 1/4" to the foot max.

A nice, compacted, properly graded sand pad is what you need before a single paver hits the ground.
You build the step out of pavers to match the field. You will need a rich sand mix or mortar mix to bond (lock in) the pavers for the step or it will fall apart with traffic. If done right, you do not see the mix.

A staked perimeter frame is necessary or the pavers will creep/spread and the job will start looking ugly.

Your paver supplier should be able to fill in the blanks, if any.

 

This is what I was "afraid" of. Is it worth it to use a 4"x6" as a patio frame to level the patio instead of putting down a soldier/sailor course around the outside?? Make it like a step down into the yard?

 

Honestly, a 4x6 at the perimeter would look ghetto to me.
You could sell it out in a garden application maybe, but a soldier course at the perimeter is the correct way for a patio. It makes the job.
Whatever paver you choose should have a matching soldier paver available.
I would verify that soldiers were available before buying into a pattern.

You can set up some temporary "screeds" and "rod" the sand off of them.
Laser levels are coming way down in cost these days. I was using a cheap one the other day mounted on a cheap camera tripod. It was the bees knees for what I was doing.
It could shoot out to 30' or so.

You can also do that job easily with a stick level. One with a top-readable bubble is best for stuff low to the ground like this job.

 

Yeah...I woulda used a nice WRC and worked it into the design...but I think you are right- Woulda still had a cheap feel to it.

Back to the drawing board....and see what the wifey has to say.

 

If you want to make it look good. But not tear it all out and start from there. I would fill in the space behind the step with mortar. Then go over the whole patio with flag stone. It looks really nice if you make the joints tight and grout in between one its all laid out.
Otherwise start over and rip out your step, patio and do a color stamped patio. But you might want to drill into your foundation every few feet and put re-bar in there out into new patio so you dont have that sagging away problem again.

 

Just a thought! Have you considered building a wood deck on top of the existing patio? By the looks of the distance between the threshold and step, you can probably get a deck to butt flush or just beneath the threshold.

Also, installing pavers can be labor intense. Especially if you need to cut some of them. I opted for doing an exposed aggregate with colonial die patio a couple weeks ago and it turned out well...most importantly, wife was happy.

 

With the dog house and the garden barrel the wife wants I think she is committed to the pavers.
Gunna use 16"x16" embossed brick...It's what here already and helps with some of the work....I hope

 

The grade is what is killing you. At one point its likely that step was nice and level with the house but its dangerous now. Dont just cover it up with stone.

I would address the grade issue first. Like was mentioned removing this slab is the right way to do it. Then you can lay your pavers on a bed of crusher dust that has been leveled and tamped. I worked in Landscape construction for 6 years as the carpenter and 60% of the work went into the foundations of our jobs.

You cant cover a broken leg with a band aid.

If a deck is not entirely out of the question (according to the boss), you can demo the step and put in a nice level, clean looking structure that will cover the mess that is there now. And you will be able to set hotdogs on that table without fear of them rolling onto the ground!

I miss construction projects like this sometimes but my back quickly reminds me of how shitty it was doing them 5 days a week.

 

Its been said and is your best bet - DECK. A nice solid wod deck with some nice railing and tile the deck real nice and it should look great and flow alot better then a step down into your back yard. I also feel it would increas the overall value of your property considering you will have additional square footage and an outside are to hang out on and you can make it as big as you want.

I did the same to my house as far as building a deck with my brother and father and it came out great.

Good Luck.

 

Rip it all out and start from scratch. You will thank yourself later. You'll spend more time and effort trying to make that work than you would just tearing it all out.

A patio would look much better and probably cost similar to the price of a deck if you install the patio yourself.