We built our own swale, to prevent the water from flowing towards our house from our higher neighbours to the south (at the side) and the west (at the back). It drains to a ditch on the east side of the house, and our basement is dry.

Beware of water flowing towards your house.

Water in a homeowners enemy. If there is an attempt to divert water across your property and away from your home then be sure you full understand why it was done before trying to change it. Based on your description it sounds like it it doing its job... do you want that river pointed at you?

What do you mean by ”corrected?” If there’s water in your backyard, it’s got to be directed to flow AWAY. Otherwise, you’ll have a lake. And/or a messy wading pond in your basement.

Attached are pictures of the engineering plans and our backyard for reference. You can see that the plans have a swale down the right side of the yard, but it ended up going diagonally across.

My question is will this look better once the grass seed grows this spring? Do you think we need to contact our engineer about correcting the swale down the right side of the property?

Swales are there for a reason and how can we possibly know what that reason was. I do agrre do not touch it without getting that info. I have a friend who does lanscape design and often these swales are made to look like dry river beds and can be quite attractive.

Here is a picture from another view. You can see it’s run off from our neighbors yard. With two small kids, it’s hard to not feel robbed of the backyard you were thinking.

Be glad that the swale is taking water away from your house! We had a dry river bed as in Patricia’s photo in a previous home. I have always liked the way that looks. It does cost money to have a landscaper come in and do that (and you want to make sure it’s someone who understands your elevation and doesn’t mess up the flow of water). Even if you can’t afford to do it all now, have someone create a master landscaping plan for you that you can execute over time.

Many years ago we had a swale constructed to move water out of a soggy backyard and it ended up funneling water into our walkout basement. Thank goodness we were home at the time and were able to put up a quick blockade until we could have it rebuilt.

I suspect your builder wanted to get that water away from your septic system versus next to it as the plans show. I would leave it as is. If you want to dress it up,  make it a dry river bed with rocks as others have shown.

My swale is grass. It's wide and shallow such that it has the capacity to drain away runoff but we can easily mow the grass growing in it. It's hardly noticeable except in heavy storms. Good luck.

I guess I would be concerned if I had future plans for a patio or inground pool. Much to be considered.

This article might help regarding drainage. My son’s backyard was lower than the neighbours and on advice, they installed a french drain and problem was solved.

https://blog.slotdrainsystems.com/french-drain-vs-trench-drain-vs-swale-vs-slot-drains

It does not look right to me. I would question it. Also what is that pipe sticking out from the house? Is that to your sump? If that is your sump hose I see along your house then extend it further down the yard. It seems to be emptying too close to the house creating that swale you see.

Best to talk with a landscape architect and get it done right

@lorraine that is a down spout gutter. Our neighbors have theirs built into the ground. Is that something we should do?

Oh wow! So sad the builder completely denuded that wooded lot. I guess they figured the remaining trees would be too easily blown down in those Midwestern summer thunderstorms. That land was used to having the trees absorb the water. Your neighbors' house to the right also looks denuded. And you are both getting run off from the cul du sac. 

My daughter and son-in-law have a swale running through their back yard. It was fine until the neighbors upstream lost the willow tree near the border between them. Willows suck up a lot of water. I gifted them two new willows for either side of the swale, and they had a French drain put in. The problem in their yard was solved BUT the the neighbors downstream suddenly had a problem, and it may have ruined their relationship. My point is that for the bigger picture it might be good to emphasize internal drainage instead of shifting the problem downstream. Plant back as many trees as you can. Plant some evergreens and deciduous. Try to get your neighbor to as well if you can. Plant shrubs too. Our area now demands that water is retained, and diverting problems through landscaping is not allowed, but you get money to make rain gardens

Add an extension to your downspout. It is too close to your foundation and may be adding to your diagonal swale which maybe just a low spot caused by the spring thaw and the ground settling and it may not be something the contractor did.

@lorraine thank you!!

I can see that if the builder did this without any warning, it’s a big surprise and disappointment. I also understand it could be something “ necessary “ based on the lots and grading but not sure I understand how that all happens post- build and not on blueprint and no communication when it does in fact affect what you can put where.

My other concern is that it doesn’t actually look big enough , deep enough for an effective swale and also have erosion control, could become obstructed with soil & roots. So I wonder if builder did this quicky- do and in fact you need much more water mitigation work that you were unaware of. I have no idea how much of all this is builder responsibility of homeowners supposed to hire independent water engineer.

I have admired many photos of dry creek beds but more some caveats: they are often in more arid climes tgat yet get flash flooding / runoff in certain seasons. Hence it I’d “ dry” much of year and there is relative dearth of vegetation invading.
Additionally, the lovely photos of pristine rocky dry creek beds would need to not be under or near deciduous trees and seed- producing trees and shrubs and of course, birds, or else you have the equivalent of having installed the infamous “ gravel” in your backyard that collects vegetative debris and grows weeds. A maintenance nightmare in contrast to the above poster who was able to have a shallow lawn- covered swale. So it also affects where you can site various wonderful trees and things that may have been part of future landscaping for shade, privacy, viewing. As well as hardscape of course.

So yes, a can of worms and I would definitely need to invest some expert consultation re: water management —which could come under landscape architecture—before jumping into decorating that “ swale” or planting trees.

You want the swale gone, and I see no reason that you need to leave this swale in the middle of your backyard. There is no reason to build upon that misguided path with a dry creek bed, unless you want a fish pond at the end of it. There is no reason for a french drain, when they only drain water within the soil, not the sheetflow on top of the soil, and the contours are sloping away to begin with. And surprisingly not said yet, but when it will be inevitably mentioned there is no reason for a rain garden unless you want to raise snails in the middle of the yard.

These are your engineered "swales" in BLUE, and everything looks ok:

The route is taking your's and your neighbor's (in RED) water, going around the septic tanks and leveled leach field towards the back. The YELLOW is apparently where the swale from the pic, whether intentional or eroded, was placed. The green looks to be a tree planted too close to the house, where even a small caliber tree's mature canopy at 15'-20' would cause problems, let alone if the species matures to a 40' canopy.

Someone needs to re-grade the drainage per the engineered site plan. What I suspect if incompetence was not the only culprit, is that there was a lot of spoils from the septic and foundation/basement dig, which masked the existing contours from rough grading and continued through with incompetence from final grading.

I personally would keep the swale closer to the prop line than shown (going on other side of tanks), combined with landscaping berms with plantings along the prop line/future fence. Installing underground piping to accept both front and back downspouts, carrying those all the way past the leach field to daylight, will help minimize sheetflow at the house. Your neighbor already having theirs underground is very helpful for you.