CBH PONDING

After 3 years I finally have an answer why my back yard ponding. It is 3 issues, First my neighbor is over watering. Second, The grading slopes into my yard. My ponding happened at the strangest times, hot and no rain. Third, the soil is clay based and has calcium that solidified into shale. That prevents water from soaking into the soil properly.

I couldn't confirm this until I actually put a shovel in the ground.

Now should the Builder have disclosed the soil composition yes, and may have.. However if the neighbors hadn't over watered it wouldn't have been an issue. So what is my resolution, sadly it is a 140 foot French Drain that I had estimates starting at 35K and up. Well thats not going to happen. So I am digging it myself almost every morning I spend 2 or 3 hours digging a trench. Below some of the pictures. I have designed it with access every 20 feet so I can snake it if needed.