Everything you need to know to setup patio slopes

Hello, today we're going to talk about slopes

Going to keep things nice and simple, but you can use these simple techniques to do some very complex things

So we're going to use a laser level and some string lines and some great sticks

Let's just go over our initial knots once again. so the first starting knot is just a hitch doubled over to create a loop

and then we're going to double that loop on itself to create a contractable loop on the end

that will slide onto the stake and cinch on and our next knots are going to be right

overhand to left loop and then a right overhand to left loop underneath the first one

and that's going to allow us to cinch and pull the string really tight and it'll lock on there

You can see in a earlier vid for details on that. Now let's start with a simple square

We're going to shoot our level line or benchmark on each of the four stakes

And in this case, we're going to slope to the left. And I'm going to show you a 1% and 2% slope

So we'll simply be measuring down from our level marks on the one side to achieve our 1% or 2%

So how do we calculate that? We going to take our length 12 feet converted into inches and then I going to times that by 1 1 times by 2 2 I literally just going to measure down from our benchmark heights down 1 and down from the

benchmark height to 2.88 to achieve the 1 or 2%. I'm just showing you both for an example

And you can see the top mark is level, top string, middle one is 1%, bottom one is 2%

So it's really that simple to create a very smooth, specific slope for various surfaces

So depending on the surface, you'll want to decide whether or not 1% is sufficient

or if you want to get closer to 2% for more natural surfaces. Now let's look at a complex, uneven slope

In some instances such as this, we will have a lot of slope to deal with

So we're not worried about a 1 or 2% because it's going to be much greater than that

But we want it to be nice and consistent looking. So it'll be level left or right, but we want to create a grid with the string line

so that we can manipulate the slope by eye and have a nice smooth contour

And it's also a great talking point for your clients to see what their finished surface is going to look like

Leave me a comment, ask lots of questions. Talk to you soon