AskCodeMan

Hi Jerry,

Brick paver pool deck. Is pool deck required to have pool deck drain when there are sign of water ponding on the pool deck?

Hi Richard,

If a paver pool deck is properly designed and installed, the paver system will drain.

The paver system, like other hardscape areas (concrete walks, drives, patios, etc.) needs to be sloped to drain, typically sloped to a swale (i.e., slope down and away from the house and sloped down and away from the pool, creating a low swale between the house and the pool), and that swale then needs to be sloped to drain to one end or both ends. Additionally, and unlike concrete hardscape areas, there will be drainage between each pavers into the sand bed the pavers are laid on.

Thus, if a paver deck does not drain, it is sloped improperly.

This could be accomplished by sloping to a drain with a proper drainage system, however it is typically accomplished by sloping to the edges and then draining with the final grade drainage.

I have had, in a few instances, where the paver decks were sloped so poorly that it was more effective to remove some pavers, install a proper underground drain system which drained to a proper drainage basin, then the paver system was reinstalled above the underground drain system with a large floor drain/catch basin installed at the low point in the paver deck - that saved taking the entire paver deck up and regrading and relaying it all, but that was only possible with a place to drain the underground drain to, many places do not have sufficient vertical fall to accomplish that, leaving the only option being to take up the paver deck, proper regraded for proper drainage, then reinstall the pavers.