Said It Here

Backyard paver patio collapsed in the center

A sudden collapse in the middle of a paver patio often happens when the base underneath washes out or settles unevenly, leaving the surface unstable. This makes the area hazardous to use and requires shoring up the surrounding pavers before you can safely rebuild the foundation.

What people tried

Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.

  1. 1
    Waiting until the dry season to dig or repair
  2. 2
    Picking up the sunken pavers, filling the area, tamping the base, and resetting the pavers with polymeric sand
  3. 3
    Calling the paver installer or builder to check warranties
  4. 4
    Taking photos and videos to evaluate the situation without aggressively excavating
  5. 5
    Reusing existing stone with mortar to stabilize them
  6. 6
    Building another mini wall to sit under new edging stones

In their words

Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.

r/Landscaping3 people · September 2026

I have this exact thing happening with my patio.source ↗

myfourthquarter · r/Landscaping · 12 upvotes

This morning, I looked outside to check on the dogs and found our patio had a collapse in the center.source ↗

livknine · r/Landscaping · 2 upvotes

However, I'm unsure how to finish this raised edge.source ↗

Currently it's natural stone (dry stone without mortar AFAIK) and this concrete edging sitting atop (poorly mortared), it's unstable.source ↗

Could anyone give me ideas/examples of a better solution?source ↗

chriggy28 · r/Landscaping

Where this came up

People with this problem also raised