Project type · Phoenix
Sinking pavers in Phoenix
The patio starts to dip and everyone assumes the pavers were laid badly. Usually the pavers are fine and the base underneath has been quietly washing away for three summers.
What is actually going on
Pavers sit on a compacted base. Concentrated roof runoff landing at the edge of that base, storm after storm, carries the fines out from underneath it. Nothing is visible while it is happening, because it happens below the surface.
By the time the surface dips, the erosion is well advanced, and relaying the pavers without addressing the water simply restarts the clock.
Arizona soil makes it worse than it sounds. Ground that has been bone dry for months does not absorb a sudden monsoon dump — it sheds it, so the water runs along the surface to the same low point every time.
How we work it out
Diagnosis before quote.
Look at where the dip is relative to the roofline above it. Settlement that traces the shape of a roof valley or an unguttered eave is a water problem, not a workmanship problem.
Check for fines washed out onto the surface or into adjacent beds after a storm.
Establish whether there are gutters at all, and if there are, where the downspouts discharge. A downspout releasing at the edge of a patio is a very efficient way to undermine it.
How we approach it
- Capture the water first — gutters sized to the roof area actually draining above the affected area.
- Then move it. This is the half most installers skip. A downspout that dumps beside the patio has concentrated the problem rather than solved it.
- Drain line or French drain carrying discharge to a controlled outlet away from the hardscape.
- Paver repair is a separate trade and happens after the water is handled, not before.
What to watch for in any quote
Including ours. These are the things worth asking about:
- Anyone proposing to relay the pavers without asking where the water comes from
- Downspouts discharging within a few feet of hardscape
- Settlement that lines up with a roof valley above
- Washed-out fines appearing on the surface after storms
Think this is your house?
Free estimate and an honest diagnosis — including telling you if it is something other than gutters.