Any progress on this issue? Do not add any soil to you property until you have a full drainage plan! ÃÂ Getting an engineer involved is advisable, but expensive, I know, I am one. :-) ÃÂ Consider these issues: 1. Drainage should take water away from the house, as quickly as possible, w/o flooding or causing erosion to you or others. Water near the house can cause many problems: ÃÂ movement near the foundation can move soil, which could cause the house to move. More immediately is the dry rot the moisture will cause to the wood of the house. Mold can form ÃÂ Maintaining any vegetation is a problem. Mosquitos will love it.ÃÂ 2. Adding fill material improperly could make matters worse.ÃÂ 3. Water always flows downhill. So, where is the water going. Try to follow it. The best way is to get the elevations of your property surveyed. I love the ability of a contour map to communicate slope of the ground. And water will follow the slope.ÃÂ 4. Decide on the outlets for water from your property. ÃÂ Drain water to the street, if possible. ÃÂ If not, build dry wells, but check percolation rates carefully. ÃÂ Be very careful about draining water on to neighboring property.ÃÂ 5. Find the sources of the water.ÃÂ 6. ÃÂ Create drain paths from (or near) sources to the outlets: There are several options to do this: (a) ditch, which needs a slope of at least 1%, 3 % is recommended; (b) Underground drain, such as a French Drain, which needs no slope, or a mini-storm drain pipe, which only it needs at least 0.1% slope, or combine French Drain and pipe; (c) pressure pipe,collect the water at a central spot and then pump the water. There are a lot of pages about all of these issues on the Web. This can be a big job.ÃÂ Good luck!

Based on your pictures, it looks like the neighbor blocked a natural drainage flow with his garage and pool. To me it looks like your only alternative is to take more pictures and take them before the zoning board in your community. That failing most area of the country have rules on the natural drainage systems, that a Lawyer could help you with. While a lawyer will cost, you have already spent a lot of money to correct an problem that can only be corrected on a community level. Your pump solution will be a continuing cost, not to mention the cost of the loss of the value of your home caused by the blocked drainage flow.

1. ) yes. Anything you can do to help with drainage will help. Regrading, adding drains. 2.) Bermudagrass tends to thin out over a season if it is a shady location. In moderate shade it will emerge in late spring with the rest of the lawn but if it doesn't get sun it will thin out. After a number of seasons like this you don't have much there. There really isn't anything you can do about it. You can buy seed that is more shade tolerant but that will look wierd since it will be green year round and be more lush than the bermuda. 3.) Yes, you can use herbicide on the weeds. If broadleaf weeds, weedBgone is commonly used.

I have contacted probably 10 companies in Atlanta and only 2 have called back. I have done this twice. The price is accurate. It appears we would spend that much. The two that have given quotes have different ideas on how it would be installed. *So far the old landscaper that installed the last sod installed a small drain and said that we didn't have an issue because the water drained out within a 24 hour period. *The first turf installer said that she would just have a lot of decomposed granite laid down and the water would just run under the layer and drain out fine. *The second said he would install a larger drain and then a bed around the drain to create a dry bed area. Obviously, I don't mind a little grading for the water but I did want it to be as flat as possible. The water is worse now. My husband says that it has washed a lot over the winter causing more issues. We just aren't sure how to repair it all. Seems like everyone has a different solution and we aren't sure who to believe. We have at this point considered installing a french drain ourselves and then putting a sod back in. I wonder if the dry well would be easier to install or work better than a french drain? The turf, while expensive, would solve the dog bringing in dirt and grass. This would be ideal but if I can't get more quotes I don't feel comfortable choosing that option since the first two are completely different in opinion on how to install it.