Drainage

With all the water issues I have had at my house lately I decided to take a proactive step to attempt to minimize further problems.  The east side of our property is lower than our neighbors, and does not drain very well.  To encourage water to drain away from the house I dug a drainage trench.  I had the utility companies come out and mark the lines in the area in which I wanted to dig.  There are both power lines and a fiber optic internet line right where I had to dig.  But those are buried a little deeper than I was planning to go.  My trench was only about ten inches deep.  I put some washed rock in it, and then laid in a weeping tile pipe before covering it all back up.  In some locations, when I knew I was close to utilities, I dug with a small gardening hand trowel.  I never did encounter anything, except for an old abandoned underground sprinkler line.  I hope that this will encourage drainage away from the house, and minimize any future water entry into our basement.  Between this and the new sump, hopefully all is good.