The most common patio failure we see: the slab drops right where it meets the house. Water pools against the foundation, the step down from the door grows an inch, and the patio tilts the wrong way. Here's why it happens and how we prevent it.
The backfill zone is the problem
When your house was built, the excavation around the foundation was several feet wider than the walls. That gap got backfilled — and backfill, unless someone compacted it in thin layers (most don't), keeps settling for five, ten, even fifteen years.
A patio poured across that zone has one edge on undisturbed ground and one edge on slowly sinking fill. The result is exactly what you'd predict: it tips toward the house.
How we build across it
We excavate the backfill zone along the house down to firmer material and rebuild it in compacted lifts — thin layers, each one compacted before the next goes in. That's slower than spreading fill and hoping, which is why it gets skipped. Then the rebar grid ties the whole slab together so it behaves as one piece even if the ground shifts a little under one corner.
We also pitch the patio away from the house in the forms, and isolate it from the foundation with a joint so house and patio can move independently.
If your patio already settled
Sometimes a settled patio can be mudjacked or foam-lifted; sometimes the slab is cracked past saving and replacement is the honest call. The difference is usually visible on site in ten minutes.
Have Jerry take a look — the on-site estimate is free, and 'it can wait a year' is an answer he actually gives when it's true.
Related service
Concrete PatiosA patio that stays flat by the back door instead of settling away from it.