I live in Western MA with a lot of snow, ice, freeze/thaw, heaving, etc.

In 2001, my late husband installed extensive goshen stone paths, steps and a goshen stone area at the back door of a finished basement with a floor approximately 4" below the outside ground level. The goshen stone area is like a small patio and the stone meets the back of the house along full length windows (window sill at ground level) and sliding glass doors.

As far as I know, he excavated down approx. 12" inches, compacted the soil with a tamper, used 3/4" crushed stone (which he tamped) for a base, and used stone dust under and in between the pavers. I'm not sure how many inches of stone dust was used on top of the 3/4" crushed stone. He may have done 6" crushed stone and 6" stone dust but I'm guesssing. The overall pitch was definitely away from the house. Now, the pitch is still away from the house, except for the stones along the building.

Last summer with the heavy rains in New England, I discovered some water stains in the family room along my baseboard on one wall and rot on the outside of one of the window sills in a far corner of the goshen stone patio. The rot on the window sill is in the same vicinity where the baseboard is stained and one of the goshen stone pavers is heaved considerably and now pitched towards the house. I also realized that all the goshen stone pavers along the outside wall where this stone meets the building had heaved and were no longer pitched away from the house but towards it. Actually, a number of the pavers have heaved (not just the ones along the building).

Several contractors have recommended basically starting over....digging out the entire area and lowering the goshen stone patio by about 4", so the patio is not higher than the family room floor which is the current situation. They would maintain a 12" base.

Some of them are still recommending stone dust in between the pavers but several are recommending 3/8" crushed stone or trap stone, as they call it because they claim stone dust is not good for drainage and is part of the problem.

Piping under the crushed stone to assure good drainage has also been recommended.

A few have also suggested just lowering the outside area by 4" but not digging down any further, so the actual base would then be about 8" rather than 12" and using the 3/8" crushed stone rather than the stone dust.

I'm trying to decide if it would be OK to just lower the outside area by 4" and not excavate the entire area to maintain the 12" base. My reservation about doing this: My husband obviously felt a 12" base was necessary in the first place and even with the 12" base, this stone has heaved, so will it heave again with just an 8" base??? I'm being told it heaved due to the stone dust. Some of the contractors recommending digging out everything and starting over with a 12" crushed stone base and lowering by 4" are also recommending not using stone dust.

Questions: Do you think I could just lower the area by about 4" leaving an approximate 8" base and should I use the 3/8" crushed stone/trap stone instead of stone dust?

Due to tight quarters, the job is also complicated because it is almost impossible to use machinery and would have to be done entirely by hand and not everyone is willing to do the job by hand.

Sorry for the long message. Your input would be very much appreciated. Thank you.