Driveways, Walks & Patios
~10 min read · Classify flatwork settlement, trip hazards and material failures — and what is merely cosmetic.
Driveways, walks, and patios crack — the inspector's job is sorting normal shrinkage from settlement, trip hazards from cosmetics, and noting when flatwork drains toward the house. The 'material vs cosmetic' judgment lives here in its purest form.
Cracking taxonomy
Concrete cracks by nature: shrinkage cracks (hairline, random or at control joints) are cosmetic; settlement cracking with vertical displacement — one slab edge higher than its neighbor — signals soil movement and creates trip hazards; heaving (frost, tree roots, expansive soils) lifts panels; widespread spalling/scaling (surface flaking from freeze-thaw and salts) is a durability note. Control joints exist to make cracking happen tidily — cracks AT joints are the system working.
- Hairline shrinkage: cosmetic, expected
- Displacement across a crack: settlement/heave — functional finding
- Spalling: surface durability, note severity and cause
Trip hazards and safety framing
Vertical offsets in walking surfaces are safety findings — commonly flagged from about ¾–1 inch of displacement (and less on primary paths); report location, magnitude, and the recommendation (grinding, mudjacking/foam lifting, replacement). Stairs and stoops in flatwork inherit the stair rules: consistent risers, sound treads, handrails where the flight warrants.
- Offsets on walk paths = safety items, not cosmetics
- Grinding and slab-lifting are the standard cures
- Settled stoops also break stair-geometry uniformity
Drainage and adjacency
Flatwork is part of the site's water plan: paving within 10 feet of the foundation should slope ~2% away; slabs that have settled TOWARD the house funnel water to the stem wall (check the interior side). Driveway aprons, sidewalk panels lifted by street trees, and patios burying siding clearance round out the adjacency findings — each reported as condition plus implication.
Worked example
A back patio has settled so its surface now pitches toward the house; the door threshold sits barely above the slab; hairline map-cracking covers the surface; and one walkway panel near the gate stands 1¼ inches proud of its neighbor. Sort the findings.
Triage three ways. The map-cracking: shrinkage — cosmetic, one line in the report. The proud walkway panel: a trip hazard at 1¼ inches on a traveled path — safety finding with a repair recommendation (grind or lift). The patio pitch: the functional headline — paving sloped TOWARD the structure reverses the 2% rule, and the low threshold means wind-driven rain and ponding have a short path to the interior; check inside for evidence at that wall, recommend slab lifting or drainage interception, and flag threshold flashing. Three cracks, three categories: expected, dangerous, and water-directing — the sorting IS the inspection.
Common exam pitfalls
Writing up every hairline crack.
Shrinkage cracking is concrete behaving normally — report pattern findings, not each line.
Measuring offsets nowhere near the walking path.
Risk lives where feet travel — prioritize offsets on routes, entries, and stairs.
Missing the slope of the slab.
A settled patio is a drainage appliance aimed at the house — sight or level the pitch and check the interior side.
Flat, falling away, and flush at the joints — anything lifted, leaning-in, or flaking gets a line.
Recap
- Shrinkage cracks cosmetic; displaced cracks functional
- Offsets on paths (~¾–1 in+) are safety findings
- Spalling = freeze-thaw durability note
- Paving near foundations slopes ~2% away
- Settled-toward-house slabs are drainage defects
- Report condition, magnitude, implication, remedy
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