Does the area stay wet when the rest of the lawn is dry?

No it dries up relative quickly with the rest of the lawn

It appears the drainage issue is worse than I thought.. we finally had a really good rain here in Houston and the entire yard is flooded. My neighbor directly behind me yard is flooded as well. Neighbors to the left , right and diagonal appear to be doing fine. Any suggestions??? My wife and I have quite a bit of money saved up and would like to resolve the issue.

DId the gutters and down spouts resolve the issue? If everyone's lawn is saturated everywhere, then there's not much you can do to fix it. If the water is coming into your basement, they you care. Otherwise, make sure water in ordinary rains is moved away from the foundation.

I live in Houston , texas and we do not have basements in most homes. My house is purely slab on grade and it appeared to only happen with me and my neighbor behind me. When purchased we had severe droughts here so never really had a good hard rain till now. The sod is new but not graded properly I believe.

Here is a picture of my neighbor behind me yard.

Here is my neighbors and my backyard

A french drain only works if you have somewhere to discharge to, either daylighting or pumping a basin in a warm climate. It doesn't appear you have those options.

The water pooling against the house is not a good situation. Bricks/mortar absorb water, which then can move to the interior buildout, and mortar can deteriorate based on the PH of the water.

Since it appears you cannot rid the water offsite, I would focus on keeping it away from the house. That means starting with grade 4" below the masonry (or top of slab if you only have brick to below grade), then sloping 5% (6inch over 10ft) down and away towards the back fence. What looks like will happen when removing the soil to accomplish that is you will have a lower detention area at the back. And although that area will still be holding water until it percolates into the soil, at least it won't be pooling against the house. You can run your gutters here too. Everything is dependent on grade elevations.

So I guess i should have showed the full scope of the situation. I have a place to remove it offsite. The waters slopes and funnels along my patio towards the front gate and out onto the street. I have had three landscapers come and recommend French drain out this way and drain the water into the streets storm drain by running pvc. I am going to need to grade the back as well as you suggested, thank you!

Do you know if the neighbor's raised the level of their yard at all? That happened to us and we have issues as well on the one side. Hard to prove though. Perhaps you could build a berm and plant it to absorb some of the water, or create a rain garden (which would need watering during dry spells. Next to the house, I would regrade and also/or put in a French drain leading away for the house. Now a pro, which you probably need . Just throwing out thoughts of things we have done.

@cyn427 it doesn’t look like they have regraded the lawn at all. It looks like my yard is a tad higher (not saying much) and seeps under the fence in low spots to his yard. I do not want that to be the case. I feel a regrade with better soil is needed / with a French drain. Listening to more thoughts and ideas as well.

I don't understand the love of/obsession with French drains. They don't magically pouf the water away just because it is supposedly underground and you can't see it. Swales, proper grading and other aboveground methods are much better.

What are the other above ground methods? Have already talked to land scapers about grading and swale.. I came to here get ideas and bounce mine off others.Thanks you tho! I was looking at channel drains as well , and or some catch basins to feed the water out towards the streets storm drain.

@Gmv 919

Is your neighbor behind you working on his drainage issues along with you? Seems like no matter what you do along that back fence, unless that other yard drainage is remedied, it’s going to create problems for you. Where I live, SW WA, we have lots of rain all winter & it is illegal to create or allow any runoff from one’s yard to flow to another property. Maybe if your neighbor works with you with same contractor, the contractor will cut a deal for both of you for the joint job? A thought…

I just recently purchased the home September 29th. Haven’t met all the neighbors yet but I’m almost positive no one lives there. It’s pretty dilapidated and might be a home passed down to someone. I might have to look into it and let them be aware of the issue.

@Gmv 919 For me, figuring that out would be the priority on my list! Ask the contractors you’re getting bids from about the issues from that adjoining property. Knock on that neighbor’s door & if renter or unoccupied, check county for owner. Some of your issues may be coming from that property - really.