Yard Full of Water (Drainage Correction) (how much, pool, drain, leaking)

[eric99gt]

I've had a continuing issue for the past year or so with a house I purchased. The back yard is always wet. It could go days without raining yet the yard is still muddy. It even got to the point where I thought the pool was leaking as a hole I had dug in the yard to plant something would continually fill with water (I'm talking within 20 minutes it would fill back to the same level). No matter how much I bailed it out lol. Pool was eliminated as a source for this water so I'm only left with Drainage as the root cause. I've had some people come in to give some estimates on the work that needs to be done. I'm getting quotes of 5k plus which is a ton to pay for water logged back yard. So I guess my real question is if I can deal with the wet yard is there really much other damage that can be done due to this situation? For example the pool is in this wet area, along with the slab for the garage. I've already noticed the bottom of the fencing has started to rot but I could deal with that. Am I looking at any major damage?

[K'ledgeBldr]

Is it a "drainage" issue- or could it be a geological problem? Clay soils, high water table?
I'd probably get a geo-engineer to look things over if it could be the latter. And yes, those things could potentially lead to greater problems.

[eric99gt]

The soil is clay. As for the water table I'm not sure and would obviously have to contact someone to get further clarification. It wouldn't surprise me though given that the water never recedes.

[Driller1]

Could you have an old flowing water well???

[eric99gt]

I guess anythings possible. I would think if it was a water well the pressure would be enough to get it to surface. It seems this problem only exists about 7-8 inches below the surface.

[cl723]

We have a high water table were we are at and clay soil. All that seems to play a part of the problem.

[eric99gt]

Have you done anything to help the issue? Or have you just dealt with a wet yard?

[cl723]

We don`t have a constantly wet yard.Only for the exception that we had rain plus snow(melting) and it was sloshy on a lot of areas(actually it was pretty bad).

Our sprinkler box is in the ground and is always full of water(also the in summer). Even when it gets pumped out, the water comes back. I`ve heard that some of my neighbors have the same problem. We do have a high water table here. We haven`t done anything about it. The only thing that I think that could be done is to put pipes in that will drain the water somewhere else.

[eric99gt]

That's what I'm looking at. Most of the estimates I'm getting include about 400 foot of pipe that will drain down to the street with several catch basins.

[North Beach Person]

You could have a high water table.
You could have an underground spring that's seeping. There's one in either my yard or the neighbor's, as a result the back end of my yard is usually wet. Except during droughts I don't have to water the garden and the grass is always green. When we have a wet year like last year the water seeps out underneath the front sidewalk next door, where there was always a wet spot before the walk was put in.

I should add that the yards back up to an area that was a marsh until it was filled in 35 years ago.