Question
Ok so my wife and i just purchased our dream home in northeast PA. When we looked at house there was snow and even until after we closed there was snow.. Once the snow melted we discovered our big back yard problem. We have a makeshift wall of large rocks which are at the bottom of an incline. well there is a constant flow of water coming out from thew rocks and our back yard is a 3" swimming pool. It just does not stop. We need to solve the problem asap..we have 3 small children who we want to be able to use the yard to play and we do not want any damage to the house. We would would like to do a retaining wall to take out the slope, but what do we do to solve the flow of water? please help.

Answer
Wade:
First its hard to know much without details that I can only get on site. The water flow may stop after spring thaw and a few weeks of time. Its only April 15th. However, the simple answer is stop this water you need to create a French drain behind and along the top of the wall (wherever it is) to capture water flowing down gradient towards the yard and then divert it around the yard instead of into the yard. Please review my previous answers related to French Drains for how to construct this drain. Be sure to connect the drain to a pipe that circumvents the areas of the yard that you want left dry. Typically a 4" flexible pipe with holes in it surrounded by gravel is adequate. You may want to wrap the gravel and pipe with a filter fabric to keep it from getting clogged with silt.
Another option might just be to create a swale (gently sloped ditch) and direct the water to areas where they do not create drain problems for you.


Best of Luck
Sean J Murphy, LA, ISA, LEED AP
You may like my landscape web sites as well.
http://www.seanjmurphy.com
http://amenityarchitects.com