We never know when, or how often, the really big storms will come. A 100-year rainstorm could occur in any year and more than once in a year. And Mother Nature seems to have a way of really pouring it on without let-up sometimes. Add to that the curious fact that it's frequently during a rainstorm that the power decides to got out. Unless you were running your pump with a backup generator, it seems like a very chancy set-up. I'd look at your proposed solution as temporary only. Before dismissing that it would cost $5K for the real fix, I'd, at least, explore your options and find out what it would likely cost. An on-site consultation with a drainage expert might offer you the best direction and would not cost $5K. It doesn't pay to be spending money going in the wrong direction.

If someone else is responsible for creating this drainage problem, a trip to a lawyer might be the place to start. (I would not go without doing all the homework first and being able to surmise what likely happened to cause the problem.) From the limited pictures it's hard to grasp where the water is supposed to go... beyond your property. It's even possible that the subdivision was originally built with this fault. As it is, it looks like there should be a storm drain in your yard since the street is higher. But since there's not, it makes me wonder about the property on the other side of the guy with the pool. Is that yard higher than his, or lower? It's important to find out where the water SHOULD go. (Am I reading your pictures correctly that, in general, water is flowing left to right?) If, hypothetically, you imagined that your yard filled completely until it had no more capacity... if water kept coming into it, where would water go next?

I don't know what the laws are where you are, but where I live you are not allowed to channel water to someone else's property. It must exit your own property to the street.

I agree with Yardvaark. It sounds like you need to research where the city planners designed the water to go and find out why its not going there. Its not hard to find that info. The city should be able to give you the development plan for your subdivision.

Our city worked with us to help us solve the problem we had. I was told that just after the subdivision was built some neighbors further up the hill from us had similar issues to you. The city had to come in and build a storm drain through at least 2 of the lots to solve the issue for them.

If you were not having these issues before your neighbor built his pool and garage then it sounds like you need to bring the issue up and demand it be solved.

If it had happened to us and the city and homeowner weren't helpful in solving the problem we'd be suing both of them for not addressing the issue of drainage and recouping the cost of having to pump all that water out.

In my son's old neighborhood the one house on the corner that was the lowest and kept getting flooded year after year was finally purchased by the city, torn down and a small park sits there now. But it took a long time for that to happen. I don't know for a fact, but I suspect law suits were involved. -

In the link below I show how we solved our problem. But we really didn't have much issue with neighbors' lots draining into ours it was that our lot wasn't graded correctly in the first place and the water had no outlet to exit our property.

Good Luck and please report back what happens.

Here is a link that might be useful: Back yard drainage

I realize this post is several years old, but I'm wondering if this problem was ever solved for lithnights. I have almost the same problem. All of our neighbors have built up their land to build large machine sheds. Mind you the city gave building permits for these sheds. Our backyard is lower than all these buildings as well as lower than our street. We have consulted an attorney briefly and there answer is "you can't obstruct the natural flow of water" so as a result our backyard floods every Spring and anytime we get any type of "heavy" rain. It has made our backyard useless. My children can't use their playhouse and we can't use our fire pit. We have brought this to the attention of the City and they tell us "its a civil matter." they even issued another building permit to one of the neighbors to ADD onto their machine shed AFTER we showed them the pictures of the mess it has created in our yard. We have consulted companies but since our backyard is lower than the street they don't seem to think there is a solution. We are considering digging a hole and installing an outdoor sump pump with a line out to the street. I am wondering if this system worked for the original poster.

Yes this does go back and bit, and first off, I apologize to the couple folks who did reply to this, for not getting back to them. I don't know what happened there.

Anyway, we have since moved from the property, and no we did not install my proposed system.

With that said, if I was still there, I would likely go ahead and attempt it. To answer a previous reply, if the water kept coming in, where would it go? Well it would essentially just keep filling up our backyard until it hit close to our house, or drained next door (to the left) who is slightly higher. But it would never get to the street, since the street is a few feet higher. Thus, when folks mention to use natural drainage, that's not an option. The property behind us is higher. The street is higher. The house is higher. The left neighbor is higher. We are essentially in a bowl.

Another idea to think of, and this is based on what we have in our new house, is a huge rock filled seepage pit. It was actually one of the ideas that a company had suggested to us years ago, but I thought it was silly. Anyway in our new home, we are required to direct ALL of our gutter/downspouts into pipes which flow into a 20 x 15 x 3.5 pit. It is filled with 4-6" rock and holds thousands of gallons. 3,000 gallons by my math using 1050 cubic feet, 40% water hold rate of the pit, 7.5 gallons in a cubic foot.

The way I see it for you, and our old house, is 1. Have sitting water. 2. Somehow pump it to the street. 3. Direct the water underground into the seepage pit (drywell) and hope that can handle the water and infiltrate down slowly. Option 1 stinks. 2 and 3 should work, just in different ways.

I'd be curious what you end up doing. Let us know.

Hi. Floodedsolutions.com Doesn't work from my PC (in Montreal). I'm interested in this pump. Please contact me by e-mail at acornea@gmail.com.

Thanks, Alex

wetiniowa- I realize you posted a few years ago, but I'm curious if you ever found a way to help your drainage situation? Our home is in the EXACT same position as yours. Sheds line our back yard and on the side and on the opposite side, the entire row of homes are higher than ours, so all of the water drains into our backyard and then has no where to go. The street is higher than our front yard. I've heard people mention "civil matter" but what in the world does that mean is the next step? Where to go from here? Just curious if you ever got a real response/help from someone and know what to do.