Does the ground go up in the area in front of the green bucket? Is there a small berm following the contour of the patio? Looks as though you need to lower the area in front of the purple and green buckets so that the water will flow over the large paved area (driveway?). Also, after you have properly graded it away from the house, I'd plant the whole area in a ground cover so that you do not continuously have soil or mulch washing away.

Consider a hard rain-- hard enough that the water would flow, to some degree, along the top of the soil before it has time to soak in. When such a hard rain hits gravel it will flow off the gravel and onto the sand or soil beneath rather quickly, then flow across the sand or soil. If it then runs into the side of a brick paver, will it pool up enough to create a "bowl" of water in the gravel area? The fact that the gravel area is next to the house is what has me concerned about this. I don't want the soil next to the foundation to be oversaturated. I know this depends on soil drainage and a host of other factors but what I want to know is if you can envision conditions where the choice of gravel->brick alone could cause a drainage/moisture problem where a brick patio all the way to the house would not.

So we've moved in 3wks ago and the builder came with his excavator and tried to grade the land himself. I insisted he use the laser thing. My dad has one and came to shoot elevations with it prior to. Thus, we already had it figured out for the builder. We thought the best way to go about it would be to drain the water away from the patio and around the side of the house down into the front yard where it would finally drain into the street gutters. The back half of the yard didn't need any work according to my dad and his little laser. Of course, builder refused to slope around the side and use the laser. He said that you have to "eyeball" these sorts of things. My dad said that he'd do it with the builder's excavator while builder was present. (my dad graded his one acre piece of property himself and it drains beautifully) Builder won't allow anyone to drive his excavator except those who work for him. Thus, we let him do what he wanted to do (drain it to the back into a little "ditch" that he claims runs throghout the neighborhood between the backyards) This little ditch that he's referring to is simply a low spot between my property and the people who live behind us because they built their yard up. This low spot is still higher than our yard, so of course draining into there won't work. Even if it would have. I don't want a ditch on the edge of our property line! It was CLEAR even by eyeball that his plan wouldn't work. I asked him what we should do if it still didn't drain. He said that he'd come back and try again. Naturally, it rained that afternoon after he left and here are the results: Now what? He either needs to agree to let my dad do it or hire a professional. It's in the contract that the land has to be graded properly. We don't want things to get ugly yet because there is one final issue that will need to be resolved. We haven't approached him about this yet. The driveway slopes into the carport, so the carport fills with water every time it rains. We are going to have to fight to get more concrete poured ontop of the carport so that it's higher than the driveway. Builder will freak when we bring this up. Thus, we're trying to keep things nice as long as possible.

Please thoroughly remove all the vinegar you applied, as it may etch the brick. Yes, once the efflorescence has abated, you can seal the bricks. Note that sealing will be a job that will require reapplications in the future. Contact the manufacturing company of the pavers (not the installer) for advice, but you'll probably find this information on their website.