Your contractor knows something. A paver patio still needs sufficient drainage for water to escape. If the soil or grade won't do it, then a drain is the solution.

We installed French drainage for our paver patio while building it in 1998. All gravel was compacted with no settling issue since. Actually, extracting water will control frost heave. Good luck.

Your contractor knows something. A paver patio still needs sufficient drainage for water to escape. If the soil or grade won't do it, then a drain is the solution.

We installed French drainage for our paver patio while building it in 1998. All gravel was compacted with no settling issue since. Actually, extracting water will control frost heave. Good luck.

fmroberts -

did the french drain go under your patio? Thanks for your input!

Yes. Ours is just inside and all around the perimeter. At the edge, I also installed a PVC tube to hedge my bet and daylighted it to the graded water route at the side of the lot.

The patio actually is higher than the lawn and held in place by a retaining wall which is a barrier to water. The French Drain removes any pooling from heavy rainfall on a couple hours.

You can go to a link at My Page to locate photos. Hope this helps.