Flooding Back Yard
 

I need help with our new house. Our back half of our yard floods bad when it rains. I think the houses around us lower into our yard. Does anyone have any sugestions?

Welcome Erin:
First I would ask the local municipality to check the culverts and drains in that area. Then I would buy several truckloads of dirt and make my yard the highest. It is just a law of nature that water runs to the lowest point it can find, just make sure your yard isn't that place.
Glenn

Right glenn - When you add fill tho you need to make sure it slopes AWAY from your house. Also, you need to make sure any dirt does not come in contact with siding or wood on top of your foundation wall.

Good luck

erin2404, this comes a little late in response but be careful about raising your yard in that you do not create a subsequent issue with your neighbors. In most municipalities you cannot "cause" a problem for others by resolving your own problem. You have other solutions as well. You can install french drains, etc.

A sump
 

Since it's illegal to divert the natural flow of water such that it causes problems to others, you might consider making a sump or two. Here's how we do it:

Bore a hole(s) in the lowest spots. We use a 12" tractor auger, but if you can't 3 - 6" hand auger holes placed to make one large hole is fine. Go at least 4' deep. Fill the hole with washed rock - the same kind used for septic installation. The water will go down the hole and perk out of the soil quickly - especially at the bottom of the hole where the weight of the water is so great.

1 cu ft of water = 7.48 gallons. Put in additional holes if you want to top them with sod - though the sod will stay pretty dry.

In reguards to the sump. I have the same problem with a flooding back yard. I will dig the hole alot deeper than 4", but wont the hole just fill up with water than i'll be stuck with the same problem. I dont understand.

Tim

Hole size/perking
 

The holes should be 4 feet deep, not 4 inches. The hole dramatically increases the surface area for the water to perk out of. The weight of the water also helps with the perking - as the hole fills, the water is heavier and pushes the water down into the ground faster. It is possible for the hole(s) to fill, but regardless, they will drain much faster than the surface would have otherwise. If your problem is quite severe, do a second or third hole.

water in back yard
 

plant a couple of weeping willow trees. they love water and will

dry up a lot of your yard.

Rain garden might work. Google it. But its essentially a pit that collects water and drains through the soil. Although they say not to place one in an area that already collects water because it doesn't drain properly. I would guess if you excavated the area and added sand and rock to help drainage it might work.

guess this would only work if you have a ditch behind your house like i do. i noticed some standing water spots were deeper than others. one day out in the rain i took a pick and kind of linked the deeper puddles with a little drainage ditch till it got to my fence and from there it ran on into the ditch. now it's mostly finished out as one of those artificial stream deals so it doesn't just look like a small trench running down the yard.

again this will depend on how things are set up for you, but another thing was i got some of that corrugated drainage tubing and ran it from the rain gutters on the back of the house and garage to the beginning of my artificial stream too (i should add that they're mosly running under my deck and not just across the yard). so the water from the gutters wasn't just spilling out into the yard.

truthfully i think it only helps up to a point, then the yard gets pretty soggy anyway. i do think it kind of drains off a little quicker though.