Patio too high

[ImagineRainbows]

We are in the process of having the garden landscaped. The landscapers completely removed the garden, levelled it and started putting a new patio in. Having looked at it today I see they have done the ground level higher than it was previously. This was never discussed with us. More worryingly I think it’s now too high and will breach the proof course. The gardener says it’s fine as there is a gravel border to soak away water. Except the bricks are still wet at the bottom so I don’t think this is adequate.

What are your thoughts? What would you be asking for at this point?

I would ask them to remove what they've laid and dig down and build the patio properly, it should be flush with the ground not raised.

The problem is I think I’ve got no chance of that happening now. I’ve raised this with them and been told it’s fine, “trust me” etc.

I expect it’s going to resort to a small claims court claim to resolve but I was hoping there is an easier fix that I might be able to get them to do.

I’m so upset about it all. This has cost us all our savings and I feel like we’re back to square one.

Respond in writing with a letter before action, that you raised the concern verbally and now this is a formal request they complete the work to a satisfactory standard or you'll (insert action of choice).

It would have cost you a lot more to have the tons of earth dug out and removed in the first place. You can see the dpc is working as expected.
You can remove the 3” of aggregate to expose the required 2 brick courses below the DPC. You could even quite easily dig it deeper and expose 3 courses.
Which way is the patio falling? It should run away from the house.

Which way does water drain when it rains? There should be a very slight slope so runoff drains away from the house, not towards the gravel by the wall.

Tip some water over the patio and see which way the water goes.

How much higher is it do you think?

No they have put a raised lawn in to avoid removing the additional earth, just clearly not enough. The old patio was also flat so they have in fact added earth.

Agree with previous poster. It should slope away from the house anyway so water runs off.

The old patio was 2 bricks below the damp proof course, now it’s 1 brick below so they’ve made it a whole brick higher. Which has also meant it’s now higher than the side path so they’ve made a hill out of the side path to solve this.

The patio goes all the way to fence on the other side and the lawn is raised (at their suggestion) to make the garden level. So where is it running to?

Should be a minimum of 225mm below doc unless specialist foundations in place which isn't the case. This is increasingly common due to the cost of removing soil and rubble. We have just declined to offer on a house for this reason. Fairly new and the builder left the ground level high, the owner had paths out in and breaching the DPC. They are now really upset when we said why we won't proceed and realise there is now a whopping cost getting paths taken up and soil removed.

The old patio (and garden) were at the right height and level. Not a great pic but you can see the previous height. There was no reason at all for them to make it higher and they never said they were going to do this either.

This irrelevant if it's breaching the DPC. You can't have anything touching the wall above it. I had this issue and our patio runs off. We've had to pull up all the patio touching the house as it was causing damp in the house.

Your patio is not pointed, so currently any water gets to the edge of the slab and runs into the ground (as long as the substrate is porous).
Did you specify pointing or silver sand for the gaps? Or nothing?
From my point of view, as long as the patio is not sloping toward the house, I’d just ask them to expose 2 courses of bricks beneath the dpc.
You can clearly see the dpc works and is not breached.

It’s not finished yet. It’s going to be resin filled in the gaps.

But also my concern is the patio not meeting the side path and having to make a ramp that we didn’t need before.

If it’s resin filled, you definitely need to be concerned about the fall.
I prefer a step to a slope.

You are the client. You need to insist they do what you want. They will go, never think of you again and you are left with a crap job. Of course they say it will be fine.

I think I would prefer a step but my concern is taking heavy bins in and out via that path.

And there was no reason to raise it when it was level before.

Is there a written contract or any specifications? It looks like they have lifted the original patio slabs, then laid the new slabs on new substrate spread over the old patio base. This has saved a lot of excavation and cost in removing the old base.
As you mentioned, where they have gone out across the old lawn, that excavation of soil has just been piled on one side to raise the lawn.
Cost and time wise certainly the most efficient method.
If the side slope is only one slab (steep gradient), you can ask them to redo it over four or five slabs.
How many quotes did you get? Was this one cheaper than the others or what was the deciding factor with these guys?

@HellsBalls They excavated the entire garden, which is why it makes no sense. I’ve put a photo up mid excavation. They definitely didn’t lay them on the old base.

We have a written quote and a diagram, the diagram shows that the lawn is raised but no mention of the patio being raised.

We got 5 quotes and these were the cheapest but not a million miles away from the other quotes, they said they had a deal with a supplier for cheap porcelain slabs which is why they were cheaper.

We went with them as they had the soonest availability.

That patio spur down the garden is at the correct height looking at the fence/gravel boards. If it was dropped 3 or 4 inches it would be lower than the bottom of the gravel boards/previous height of the garden. Which would look odd.
Was the old patio and garden level or garden slightly raised?
Anyway, it looks like it’s not getting removed now and relaid any lower.
As I mentioned, just lowering the height of the gravel solves the issue. Your dpc is good.

@HellsBalls That long fence has never met ground level, it’s coming down and being redone.

How do we lower the gravel? It’s not thick at all and is laid on compacted MOT that is under the patio also and weed membrane plus sand. Even removing the gravel completely will still leave it too high unless we dig everything out but then won’t we have a trench around the garden instead.

@HellsBalls The garden was level to the eye previously but may have had a slight slope. However just checked the quote and it says “infil of fresh grade A soil topping” on the list so they’ve actually added soil not taken it away.

Photos of previous garden and patio level.

It may have a slight slope but not that we ever noticed but I guess grass is more forgiving of a slope.

@ImagineRainbows ”How do we lower the gravel?”
That trench with the gravel in it needs to be scraped out. If you remove all the gravel and it’s still not two courses below then dig it out deeper and back fill with gravel. It’s not much work. Even if it wasn’t done, it’s very unlikely you’ll get any damp issues with a new house/plastic dpc. If the patio touched the wall, then rain would bounce off it above the dpc, but that’s not the case here.
I’d still want the two courses visible myself though.
The patio might be higher because now it stretches down the garden that’s how the heights worked to get it flat or a slight slope away from the house.