For the record, I am very aware that I may not be out of the woo…er, swamp yet. But I’m not totally surprised that what was done is working. There is now an underground dry well, a corner of gravel, and a good 50 feed of underground tubing nestled in a bed of rocks. That is all space for water to go that I did not have before.
And I may have mis-spoke a bit when I talked about the dry well full of mud. It certainly looked like that, but I did not know at the time that it was full of rocks. There was a coat of mud on top of the rocks - which I know would interfere with drainage - but nothing like a barrel-full of mud, which is probably the impression I gave.
Anyway, @Lancia, thanks for you input. You really put a good deal of effort into your replies and that is appreciated.
Nearly one year later. This is where we give @lancia their due.
The fix failed. Miserably. The contractor promised a repair (French drain), and then promised it again. And yet again.
And then he ghosted us. We texted weekly, then almost daily. This went on for 4 months with absolutely no response from him.
So then I composed a nice letter which I sent to him via text, email, and certified mail:
Interestingly, he responded immediately to this text. Like, within 3 minutes. He said the refund check would be in the mail that day.
He never mailed the check. I texted and emailed once a week, each time he said he’d mail the check that day.
Fast forward to today, two days before the deadline. He sent his wife to our house with the refund. Of course, it was short. I refused it. She then went to an ATM to make the amount correct.
She just left a few minutes ago. I was prepared to file a small claims suit, and he knew it.
Now I just have to find someone else to install the drain.
Just wanted you to know, Lancia - you were correct all along.
mmm
ETA: So was @DSeid. (and probably others, too lazy to re-read the entire thread)
So many stories like this. I wonder what people are thinking when they build houses. I figured most people were aware that water runs downhill. I fixed water entry problems in two houses with simple grading to divert surface water away from the houses. My current house was more of a problem to get that water down to the street so I had a guy dig out a ‘swale’, more or less a shallow trench leading down to the street where surface water can travel away. It’s not really a natural swale fed by groundwater, but surface water from a distance past the back of my property needed drainage.
I just planted a Dawn Redwood in that ‘swale’. Unfortunately I won’t be around to see it approaching 200 ft. tall. Apparently these trees just love soggy ground but are very long lasting and much more stable than willow trees. If I were younger I’d go plant a grove of these things somewhere.
For what it’s worth I was rooting for you and hoping I would be wrong / was missing something obvious. As noted I have a similar issue and would really like to avoid a big engineering project in my backyard but, I’m afraid, such a thing is inevitable.
Two large houses built behind and uphill from my house turned my backyard into a swamp. I had to put in a dry creek with a few drains and a long pipe out to near the street just to get the yard dry. In the process the change in the grade ad water runoff pattern is slowly killing some large old elm trees.
I am beginning to see why folks get up in arms about all of the knockdown/rebuilds around here.
Did local government help out? Around here they will often work on diverting water and creating drainage areas. There’s no guarantee, but a sort of attitude that if they allow new construction they have to step in if the secondary effects are bad enough. I suppose bad enough to hire a lawyer and threaten a lawsuit helps