How to tell if bad patio installation is poor workmanship
Large gaps, chipped stones, and strange finishes after sealing leave homeowners unable to tell whether masonry work is normal or sloppy. This makes it difficult to know whether to confront the contractor or accept the flaws.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1filling gaps or chipped voids with polymeric sand or cement
- 2asking the contractor to replace specific flawed pieces
- 3using strategic placement to hide chipped stones
- 4Waiting for the sealant to dry or clear up on its own
- 5Planning to send a note to the landscaper to ask what happened
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Last week I had my back patio hardscaping coated with sand and then sealed. The landscaper used a "gloss finish". Is this what it is supposed to look like after it's sealed?”source ↗
“I thought it might be something that had to dry, but it still looks like this 5 days later.”source ↗
“I would like some education before I reach out to them.”source ↗
“Recently got a new patio installed and this is how the stairs were built. There are pretty large gaps between stone pieces and the bullnose slabs used for the stair platforms have chips and large gaps between them. Is this within the normal scope of quality errors or is this lazy work?”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 5Concrete slab sloped toward the house
- 3Backyard paver patio collapsed in the center
- 3How to fix yard grading under existing paving stones
- 3How to stop DIY pavers from shifting and sinking over time
- 13How do you fix a backyard patio with mismatched paver sizes?
- 2Can you use a plate compactor on travertine pavers?