[TrojanScott]

Hello everyone,

Here's my deal. I recently had my backyard leveled, it sloped upwards quite a bit. I had a new retaining wall built, about 5 feet from the back wall that seperates my property from my neighbor right behind us. It's been an expensive few weeks for sure. Well, I'm doing the sprinklers this past weekend, and while I'm trenching along the base of the retaining wall, my neighbor is watering his palms. I quickly notice water seeping through the base of the wall, and making quite the puddle. His planter is about a foot higher than my dirt line of my planter, and from looking at it, he has no drainage. His pool buts up against the planter, so his drainage goes to my property. So, the guy who's selling me my grass happens to come by, just to see where I am with this project, notices what's going on, and says I've got a problem. No doubt! Well, aside from him saying, "they over water," he said my BEST bet would be to take most of the dirt out of my planter, refill it with gravel, but that it would cost me. He said next best step would be to dig a two foot trench along the base of the wall that is between the properties, lay drainage pipe with gravel on top of that, and connect it to my drain pipe in the planter area.

Does this sound like a decent fix? Hope that made sense!

[papercutter]

too many variables for me to make a guess at online, and I'm guessing others will feel the same way. I'd say your best bet is to find a good local contractor and get his or her recommendation. Wish I could be more help, but I don't guess blindly at drainage issues- it does you no favors.

[Stonehenge]

I'm having a hard time picturing what exactly is going on, so I'd probably pass on giving advice as well. Local eyes on the problem, as papercutter suggested, is going to be better than advice from people hundreds or thousands of miles away.

One thing to start with before you call anyone - your neighborhood, if it's been constructed in the last 10-20 years, should have an engineered drainage plan. Find yours. If you don't have the portion relevant to your home, check with the city. From there, along with using a set of professional eyes on the problem, you should be able to find a workable solution.

Good luck.

[TrojanScott]

The guy that recommended the fix is a in the business, so I'm figuring his idea is a good one, and it makes sense. I guess I'm just looking for reaffirmation, I'm that way! The water needs to go somewhere, and I know I can't depend on my neighbor to fix it, so I need to make sure it drains. At least I already have everything in shambles and it's only a matter of more work and more money!

[TrojanScott]

Oh sorry, wish I could have painted a better picture. Short version is my neighbors planter has nowhere to drain but towards my house. It's probably always been this way, just not as noticable with the way our yard used to be sloped instead of level.

Thanks for the replies though, I'll have another contractor come out to confirm so I can feel better about it.