Water leaking from neighbor's Side yard due to slope

H

happycat

Member
Hi folks,
We moved to a new hilly community and found our side yard is constantly soggy since water is leaking from the neighbor's side yard (see attached photos).  There is no broken sprinkler head and our neighbor is not watering too much (about 3 times a week). What happened is our side yard is lower than hers so the water is sipping through.  This is bad since we are planning to plant trees and too much water in the ground is going to kill the plants! 

My landscaper said the only way to fix the problem is to ask my neighbor's landscaper dig out the dirt and apply water resistance material on the side wall, but my neighbor landscaper said NO and there is nothing they can do about it. We can NOT install French drain here since the plant roots will get into the drain and clog it.  So what to do?
Do you have any experience or suggestions for situation like this? Thanks!
 

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According to Yellow Fever that water does not travel subsurface and your example is clearly the case. Your neighbor is several feet above your pad elevation. The water at your neighbor's backyard should swale around both sides of the side yard and drain to the front. Because the grade is steep her other side yard is probably at a even higher elevation than the side yard next to you. Water is draining one way. The recent rain saturated the soil and any additional watering is seeping to your side along the subsurface route. Luckily the water is not trash gravy but clean landscape water. When your neighbor did her rear yard she likely did not put in adequate area drains or may be none at all. The builder usually provide one to collect the water. Go to the curbside and check for a 3" white PVC between your and her property line. If there is none then the side yard is saturated. The builder usually install gravel against her side of the wall and backfill. A good builder would install a French drain there if there is a French drain you will see a PVC pipe again at the curb face. The water is collecting on your higher elevation side of your 2 side yards. The water appears to be stagnant. That means you don't have positive drainage for the water to drain to the front of the property. You can either regrade your side yard to a 1% slope to the front or if that is not possible because the dirt next to your driveway is too high then do an area drain to collect the water seepage and drain it out through the curb face. This water could saturate the dirt below your foundation since a tract home has a 5' sideyard. This increases the hydrostatic pressure because the dirt is swelling. Post tensioned slab should prevent it from settling and cracking.
 
happycat said:
Hi folks,
We moved to a new hilly community and found our side yard is constantly soggy since water is leaking from the neighbor's side yard (see attached photos).  There is no broken sprinkler head and our neighbor is not watering too much (about 3 times a week). What happened is our side yard is lower than hers so the water is sipping through.  This is bad since we are planning to plant trees and too much water in the ground is going to kill the plants! 

My landscaper said the only way to fix the problem is to ask my neighbor's landscaper dig out the dirt and apply water resistance material on the side wall, but my neighbor landscaper said NO and there is nothing they can do about it. We can NOT install French drain here since the plant roots will get into the drain and clog it.  So what to do?
Do you have any experience or suggestions for situation like this? Thanks!
Click to expand...

IHS is absolutely correct.  Your neighbor failed to install proper drainage on her side.  Considering the amount of stagnant water, I also think she is overwatering.  You say three times a week, but for how long??

Both of you need French drains, and roots shouldn't be a problem if you've installed root barriers around your trees.

As your landscaper mentioned, you could also dig out the dirt on their side and apply black tar to the buried portion of their retaining wall.  That may reduce the amount of water on your side but won't eliminate the problem.
 
New build or resale?  Even if resale, if builder still around, worth looking into.  My old condo side yard was leaking into my garage, builder came, it was pass 1 year, but fixed it up.  Dug up the yard bordering the garage, applied the black tar barrier, and problem fixed.

Tread carefully with neighbor, your next to them 24/7, don't make it awkward.
 
Come to think of it, it hasn't rain that much recently, if those pics are recent, your neighbor is over watering.  Assume this is a detached condo?  The amount of soil in the side yard is small and easy to saturate.  My condo only had issues when it rained back to back to back.  With that said, even if she is overwatering, it should not spill over into your yard.  Builder or look into homeowner warranty if resale.
 
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