New porch/stone piers — looking for a mason's opinion on grading and pier alignment
I'm looking for an objective opinion from experienced masons/hardscape installers on some recently completed porch work.
On the right side, I measured approximately 2¼ inches of fall over 8 feet away from the house. The opposite side of the porch has a noticeably gentler slope.
What bothers me most visually is the bottom of the right-hand stone pier. Because the porch surface drops fairly quickly across that area, the lower stone/course at the pier ends up looking wedge-shaped or “pie-shaped” when viewed from the porch. The pier cap itself is level.
My questions are:
- Is that amount of slope reasonable for this type of porch?
- If there is no drainage or elevation constraint requiring different grades, would you normally expect the two sides to have similar pitch?
- Is the wedge/pie-shaped treatment at the bottom of the pier considered a normal way to accommodate the slope?
- If not, how would an experienced mason normally detail that transition so the pier still reads square and level?
There is also a separate issue with the left pier. Looking down from above, the pier and cap appear to be rotated slightly relative to the paving grid and house. The post above it will soon be wrapped with straight TimberTech deck boards, so I'm concerned that the rotation may become more noticeable once the cladding is installed.
Does that pier look meaningfully out of square, or within normal masonry variation?
I'm genuinely looking for an objective trade opinion rather than confirmation that something is wrong.
Thank you.