Photos always help, but you could add a low retaining wall at that far edge if there is a way for the water to drain. This is something that needs to be figured out before you do any further excavation so that you don’t end up with the type of issue in the photos on the linked thread.

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/5775025/draining-for-irrigation#n=10

Here is a picture.

Another angle. The grass area that is not dug out yet is a little higher than the area that has been excavated. It also slopes slightly towards the HVAC unit. I am struggling with finding a way to get the patio pitched away. Thanks for the help.

It looks like one solution might be to get someone to raise the AC units a bit. Are the pads poured in place? Or better yet, slightly alter the patio placement to allow for a short, open screen between the AC and the patio, something you may want to do anyway so you don’t have to look at them. With a screen the patio and the AC units don’t have to match in height.

How about making the ac unit area the high point and everything else dig out more of a slope so that the lowest point is at the mid yard

Immcnitt, check out details in the initial post. If Marco does that, then the yard around the patio will be higher than the patio and water won’t drain. In that scenario he would need to find a lower part of the yard and construct a swale to guide water there as well as retaining walls around the patio.

In all cases, whether there is a patio, or not, the grade must be pitched to drain away from the house ... the standard, ideal minimum distance is for 10' (though this is not always honored on account of of obstructions or spatial limitations.) Once water is 10' away, it is either picked up by the general overall flow and carried farther away, or it must be further guided by drainage appurtenances such as swales, flumes, or catch basins and pipes. If possible, it is less trouble to keep water at the surface on its way off of the property. (It looks like this would be a good time to make sure drainage all around the house meets the minimum ideal standard. And it looks like there might be sufficient space in the yard to accomplish it.)

Do you have a plan which shows the patio relative to the house? It seems that you are trying to connect two doors to the patio, which means that there must be a stoop and some steps ... all of which take room. By the time these things are built, the usable portion of the patio is going to shrink considerably relative to what is suggested by the string and stakes.

In figuring how to make the patio drain, one needs to have knowledge of the overall drainage and how water will find its way from the patio, to it. It will be easier to accomplish if the patio elevation can be made higher to start with, which looks possible based on the finish floor elevation, though there might be some complications to this. (We are looking at a very small, inadequate portion of the surroundings.) That's where I'd start in looking for a drainage solution, as it could have the dual effect of lessening the number of steps required between patio and house finish floor.

What doesn't affect you now but will when the patio is used, are the AC condensers. It seems like you'd want to get the patio a little farther away from them so you have the ability to screen them with a solid, noise-reducing panel. (You won't be able to place such a panel too close to them on account of it restricting air flow. If their sound isn't somewhat deflected, it could make using the patio an annoyance if conversation must come to a stop every time they turn on.

Please post a plan if you have one. If you don't have one, you should make one before going any further on this project. Plans are where problems are discovered and can be resolved before they must be faced in real life.