Looking at your landscape it seems that the type of issues that you
are dealing with are out of my area of study. My guess is that there
is very little infiltration occurring due to a poor soil profile. If
your property is sitting near a low spot it will be difficult to
prevent this pooling of water. The only option I see is to landscape
your yard in a manner that would redirect this water out and away from
your home. This would require a lot of soil, and a lot of money. You
might want to try to contact your builder to see what their
perspective is on the situation. It seems to me that they should be
somewhat responsible for the problem. Needless to say, I am not a
lawyer. I live in Nebraska and a common problem here is shrinking
and swelling clay. It cracks peoples foundations. If the builder
fails to account for this, it can lead to serious problems down the
road. I know the issues are different but it all goes back to
builders putting up homes in locations that were not meant to be built
on. Good luck!

--- In stormwaterpro@yahoogroups.com, "kalibailey11" <kalivanagas@...>
wrote:
>
> I don't think it is a rising water table, though I have heard rumors
that the common area is
> on a natural spring. Here's a link to some photos of the swampy area
around my house. I
> put captions on the photos explaining some of the history of the
property. When we
> moved in, it was a high desert forest with Juniper and Ponderosa,
then a development
> company bought it and put in 90 new homes and this grassy common
area. The flooding
> got really bad after that happened. Sometimes it floods the whole
neighborhood. We get
> 12" of snow about 3 times a year. Plus 3" off and on all winter.
When we get 12" and it
> melts suddenly, that's when it floods almost every house on the
common area, but ours
> gets it the worst.
>
> Photos http://community.webshots.com/album/562696020UyxcwP
>
> If, after seeing the photos, you can recommend a place to start, it
would be much
> appreciated.
>
> Many thanks,
> Kali Vanagas
>
>
> --- In stormwaterpro@yahoogroups.com, "bjoel800" <BJoel800@> wrote:
> >
> > Would you guess and say that the majority of the water is due to
> > snowmelt and rainfall, not a rising water table. If it is mainly due
> > to poor drainage you might need to landscape in such a way that you
> > change the drainage pattern. This way the water drains away from your
> > property, and not towards your foundation. If your flooding is due to
> > a high water table, I am not sure what you can do.
> > --- In stormwaterpro@yahoogroups.com, "Norman MacLeod" <gaelwolf@>
> > wrote:
> > >
> > >
> > > REPOSTING for group member
> > >
> > >
> > > FROM: kalivanagas@
> > > DATE: Sun, 02 Mar 2008 20:27:24 -0000
> > > SUBJECT: New to group- snow melt drainage problems, help!
> > >
> > > For the last 13 years, my family has been battling a swampy yard
and
> > > water in our crawl space. We have three $500 sump pumps but that
> > > doesn't fix the yard. It's so bad that the dogs don't even want
to go
> > > outside. Our yard extends about 8' out from our house with two
12x15'
> > > areas on either side of the house. It's a flat lot and there are
berms
> > > separating the flooded common area from our property but our
house is
> > > in the low spot. We have lawn, bark, aspens, and some native brush.
> > > What can we do to get rid of all this water??? Thanks
> > >
> >
>