So I recently asked a car question on this forum and was shocked when I got an answer a couple of minutes later. This forum is truly amazing, and I appreciate you guys every day. So let me throw my biggest problem at you and see what we come up with.

In 2014, my brand new wife and I purchased a house on almost 3 acres. The lots are not wide, but very deep. A little bit more than half of the yard is wooded. Behind my property is more woods and I was pleased to find out that many people in the area shoot. So I built a good backstop and shoot pistol in my woods all the time (neighbors all shoot rifle, but I'm not comfortable with it).

We purchased the home in the fall and I enjoyed my little Alice of paradise until the snow melted. I found severe flooding to cover nearly the whole yard. My house is built up a little bit, so my crawl doesn't flood, but the sump pump runs full-time from the melt until late June. My entire back yard floods with several inches of water making it impossible to mow until the grass has grown over 12" long and I have to hire a field mower to come do it.

The woods flood in excess of 30" deep in some spots. I would say that the average water depth in my woods is 18". The water obviously is a breeding ground for mosquitoes making the situation all the more miserable.

The neighbors yards have some flooding, but nothing near what mine does. There is no dot h out front and no drainage at the street. We spent a year trying to figure out if there is a place to redirect the water, but there is not. We contacted the county engineer who basically told us tough shit....

My partner at work is married to a lawyer and offered to look things over for us. The prior owner did disclose "pudding in the back yard." and that it was remidied by regarding the back yard. The yard had new grass when we moved in. The lawyer told us that it was a big gamble, that could end up costing us a lot of money. Similar cases in the area had gone in favor of the seller.

I basically spent the last couple of years disgruntled about the back yard, cursing the prior owner every time I looked back there and figured I was SOL. I have a two year old boy who loves going outside and in the woods with me, and I have become more determined to find a fix (or at least make it not as bad) mot only to have fun with him, but also because the flooding could be dangerous, as the ground is super soft and he could get stuck in the mud if he makes it into the water.

The other problem is that gigantic oak trees are just tipping over at a rate of 2-3 per year due to small root systems and soft soil.

I don't have a ton of cash to fix this, but am willing to put all I can at the fix.

Any ideas from the Sigforum brain trust? We may just end up selling the place at a loss (I wouldn't lie and call it pudding to the new potential buyer).

Edited to add: I did call a company to get an estimate as to what it would cost to dig a pond and back fill the yard. $25k with no guarantee of fixing the yard or not causing problems for neighbors and the problems associated with that.

You out in Ashtabula County by the Denmark swamp? Thought once I saw where you were by Pymatuming. I’d check with another excavator. Good Luck.

Which way does the grade go? Does it go from your backyard and go down the further away from the house? I can think of 2 things to do.....rent a backhoe and dig out a "pond" and basically create a deep pond for the water to drain into. OR, dig out a swimming pool sized area and put gravel and create a French drain so to speak......

I am not expert in this and I think you really need to call a local expert that is familiar with your area.

Plant rice?

Do I understand correctly that there is no place nearby that is lower topographically than your back yard?

There are no lower areas in the immediate area. There is a very small ditch running through the woods that belong to the neighbors behind me. It is approximately 1000 feet beyond my property line.

I have no suggestions on what to do with the standing water, but I'd be concerned about what might happen if you get one of those "100 year rainstorm/floods" sometime in the future. If you're the lowest topographic spot around, could you get a flood that gets into your house? If that's occurred in the past and the seller didn't disclose it, maybe that would provide a legal action you could explore? Just a thought.

If you are the lowest piece of property in the area, I don't see an easy solution in your future. Pick the lowest point, dig your pond. Use the excavated soil to raise your profile slightly, and landscape/terrace it to encourage water to collect in the pond.
Or, spend some $$ on topsoil and raise your profile enough to make the problem someone else's headache, like my moms neighbor did. His renovations caused water to wash across the bottom 1/3 of her driveway. In the winter she would have an 8" glacier of ice at the end of the driveway and the sidewalk.

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pudding in the back yard

I would love pudding in my back yard.

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Originally posted by zoom6zoom:
Plant rice?

Or millet and then hunt ducks

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Originally posted by motor59:
If you are the lowest piece of property in the area, I don't see an easy solution in your future. Pick the lowest point, dig your pond. Use the excavated soil to raise your profile slightly, and landscape/terrace it to encourage water to collect in the pond.
Or, spend some $$ on topsoil and raise your profile enough to make the problem someone else's headache, like my moms neighbor did. His renovations caused water to wash across the bottom 1/3 of her driveway. In the winter she would have an 8" glacier of ice at the end of the driveway and the sidewalk.

I would suspect that raising the grade is what all the neighbors have done leaving you at the bottom of the hill to collect their water. Also, you might look into where the water comes from. In many places, if not all, it's not legal to drain your water across another's property. Given the volume, the pond option seems to make the most sense at first blush. An alternative might be the "French drain" or a collector with a lift pump and related piping to pump the water to a place where it can drain away on its own (street/storm drains). Definitely need a landscape engineer to shoot the grades and give you some proposals on options. Don't imagine that any option will be inexpensive.

You can put the word out to pool/septic companies you will take any spoils from them also possibly the county.

There also used to be maybe still is a website for people wanting fill dirt and people needing it.

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Originally posted by Sailor1911:

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Originally posted by motor59:
If you are the lowest piece of property in the area, I don't see an easy solution in your future. Pick the lowest point, dig your pond. Use the excavated soil to raise your profile slightly, and landscape/terrace it to encourage water to collect in the pond.
Or, spend some $$ on topsoil and raise your profile enough to make the problem someone else's headache, like my moms neighbor did. His renovations caused water to wash across the bottom 1/3 of her driveway. In the winter she would have an 8" glacier of ice at the end of the driveway and the sidewalk.

I would suspect that raising the grade is what all the neighbors have done leaving you at the bottom of the hill to collect their water. Also, you might look into where the water comes from. In many places, if not all, it's not legal to drain your water across another's property. Given the volume, the pond option seems to make the most sense at first blush. An alternative might be the "French drain" or a collector with a lift pump and related piping to pump the water to a place where it can drain away on its own (street/storm drains). Definitely need a landscape engineer to shoot the grades and give you some proposals on options. Don't imagine that any option will be inexpensive.

This is about all the options you have. One last option is to ask permission from the landowner behind you to connect to their ditch. Again, another cost venture to run that 1,000 feet.

We've been looking at land in Lorain county but see the same problem. It's all flat and if there is a grade, its in the wrong direction.

Investigate drain tiles, As the oak trees go replace them with nice willow trees they love water and actually help drying up water. Might get you a few weeks more use.

Embracing what you have is far easier than fighting nature. I’d put my efforts into a pond, call it water retention pond around any city engineer type you’ll instantly be their friend. Might even be some financial help if it’s a green enough project. L

Given the limited information we have I agree with most about building a pond...
HOWEVER...
Depending on the locality this can be a bureaucratic nightmare with all the permits you'll probably have to get. Don't just rent a backhoe and go digging unless you want the dirt Nazi's from the locality to land on your property with all sorts of cease and desist orders as soon as the neighbors see what you're trying to do.

I would suggest you investigate your locality's zoning ordinances and Erosion Control plan and see what you might be able to do before trying something.

First thing I would do is buy flood insurance.

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Originally posted by Mikito:
You can put the word out to pool/septic companies you will take any spoils from them also possibly the county.

There also used to be maybe still is a website for people wanting fill dirt and people needing it.

This was my thought. If you have no contacts locally in the building business, go out and cold call them, let them know what soils you will/won't accept, and where you want them. You'd be surprised how many free loads of dirt you can get.

Will you have to re-sod/re-seed? Probably. Still cheaper than most other options.

Before spending money on fill or a drainage I would look at maps to insure that the land in question is not considered wetlands. Hopefully not.
The side street of my house had several homes built and the end of the backyards usually had water sitting. One homeowner put fill in and had a built in pool installed over 7 years ago. This summer the Department of Environmental Protection made him take out the pool and haul the soil away. The person that built the 6 homes put drain pipe in his back yard to send the water into the woods which is a Federal Reserve. He was also made to restore his property to the original grade.
I hope it works out for you, a pond would be nice.

Thanks, everyone for the replies. I'll be looking into a lot of the suggestions here.