Hi Ed,

As I said before, what you have in effect is a reservoir, not a drain.
The intrusive root balls are proof. Also, French drains should not be
used with gutters and downspouts. They are used to drain water *from*
the ground, not introduce water *to* the ground.

One reason you had root balls plugging the drains was that until you
put the new roof on and put screens on the gutters, oak leaves and
Spanish moss etc were going down into the drain and being snagged in
there.

Personally I would redo the French drains with PVC as you are already
doing and remove the gutters from the roof. It sounds like your sandy
soil is fully up to the task, with assistance from the French drains
to remove excess, now that you have fixed the surface runoff from your
west neighbor. If you do this, the ditch won't back up quite so much
because your property will be draining less into the ditch.

With so much water and your layout, you could also have a spectacular
rain garden and/or koi pond in the front yard.

Una