As usual, you guys are spot on and really helpful. I will toast you again when this project is completed.

New housing development in the section behind my house has caused increased water run off about 5 feet inside my back fence. Water has always drained there, East to West, but now the flow is greater and it takes about a week to dry as my neighbor to the east has the same issue. In fact, are 5 houses on my street that have this issue. My neighbor to the west just completed his drainage ditch.

He simply hand dug a 3 foot wide, 2 feet deep ditch along the drainage pattern. He then lined it with landscape paper and then filled it with coarse rocks. Actually looks very nice. He had the rocks delivered along with a pallet of St. Augustine which he lines the trench with.

My plan was pretty much the same. Not sure I need to dig it that deep? And I'm not sure how to make sure I keep the flow going east to west at a constant angle. Also, I don't need the St. Augustine as the backyard Bermuda is very thick and healthy.

Would a Ditch Witch be helpful here? Also, I was thinking of using a prettier round river rock instead of just crumbled irregular crushed rock.

It took my neighbor about a week working mostly solo but getting help from his wife and sons - mainly on the digging and hauling rock from his driveway where it was delivered.

Not sure either of what kind of liner to use. Is there such thing as a preformed ditch liner?

Thanks for any inputs. I'm pretty sure my neighbor could have done it in 5 days without his wife's help...

French drain.

French drain. Learned how to do it on YouTube.

I hand dug a trench on a Saturday got a rain Saturday night enough to fill the trench with 4" of water. Actually worked out well because it allowed me to get the slope right since I had to angle it properly to get the 4" to drain.

cavscout96 said:

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might look into the fact that is probably illegal for the developer to change the surface water runoff and redirect water onto your property. You might get him to foot some of the bill.

On a larger scale, I recently had to get an easement to rebuild a 30 year old stock tank. When the original tract was divided, the the property line did not account for water that "could" be retained in a 50 year storm event. Essentially, I had to get permission from the adjacent landowner to temporarily impound water across the property line and on his land. He didn't make me pay for it, but I had to have a survey and the NRCS did a runoff analysis so we could get it right.

since you are experiencing problems do to his development, you could ask, then press, for relief. If nothing else, you might get him to cover materials and trencher.

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Very true about the illegality of the developer changing the surface water runoff by refirecting it onto the neighbor's property. Similar issue happened to my son and daughter-in-law on their property when the developer built a new house behind them and the water run off was redirected by the developer onto their backyard. My DIL was an attorney and she sent him a letter to that effect and he immediately resolved the issue rather than fight the legal issue in court.