Hello,
I recently moved into a new house in Atlanta and I'm hoping to get some
advice on how to best deal with a pretty bad mud problem we have in our
backyard. Our yard slopes very gradually down to the center and from
there is flat. We're getting water runoff from neighbors on both sides
and with our own gradual slope we're getting a big mud pool in the
middle of the yard after every rain. The problem has gotten worse since
our neighbor on one side put in a french drain that directs his runoff
directly into our yard. I am planning to talk to our neighbor, but I
need a bigger plan since the french drain is only a small part of the
overall drainage problem. If you saw the setup of our yards and our
neighbor's french drain you would see that it's not quite as obnoxious
as it sounds since any drainage solution our neighbor adopts will
almost certainly send the runoff our way.

I learned about french drains searching these groups, but I don't think
one will work well for us because there isn't much slope once the water
gets in our yard. Is it reasonable and smart to try and change the
slope of a 1/3 acre yard? I thought about possibly bringing in dirt, or
digging dirt from around the sides of the mud pool to fill in the mud
pool and surrounding area. This might inctroduce a slope away from the
middle to help with drainage, but it would take a lot of dirt and I'm
not sure if this is a reasonable plan. I can also plant some more
bushes or something if anyone has any recommendations to absorb the
water, but I'm sure this would only solve part of the problem.

I would probably tackle a french drain on my own, but I really want a
full solution, not a partial solution that I can handle. I don't mind
using contractors, but I'm not even sure what type of contractor I
need. If anyone can suggest a contractor in Atlanta please post their
email address.

Thanks a ton for the help.

-Dave