water damage on baseboards

I have water damage of baseboards along the back of my house. I think the water is affecting the back foundation of the house. The backyard is low and soft so that when the grass is cut you can see deep tracks from the lawn mower. Obviously the builder /developer did shoddy work. It's the Florida rainy season and it can rain really hard. I need a solution that won't get the HOA on my case. There's a slight depression all along the side of the house between my house and the neigbor's. There are about five feet from my house to the depression. This is a flood area. There are manmade lakes all around to deal with excess rain. What is a solution?[/size][/size][/size][/size][/size]

If it was built on a slab than there should be no dirt or mulch above the top of the slab on the out side and better if it was a few inches below the top of the slab. The grade from the slab going out to the yard needs to slop down hill and away from the house. If the building is brick some times there will be drain holes on the bottom row of brick these can also let water to drain inside and not out side.

I don't think your HOA would have an issue with french drains as they would be under ground and you could replace the grass and planters.
French drains can help to drain spongy yards helping to drain the water build up in the soil. With french drains look into piping the down spouts away from the structure and should not use the same lines as the french drains.

Without being able to see the elevations it is hard to say what will help.

Thank you for the input. I'll find out about installing a French drain.

A French drain and/or a swale are mechanical ways to direct water away, if you want to add some landscaping to dry it out, try some bald cypress trees. That's a native Florida solution to the problem, and it is sad that so many of them were cut down. I'd offer to send you some seeds, but you are in bald cypress central, and with a little searching, you can probably find ones of all sizes from recently sprouted twigs to ones in 50 gallon tubs.

Patsy Eldun : Is it possible that all your water damage is from the backslash of water that pours off of your roof in heavy rains? Your 1st clue should be mud splashed
up onto your siding, if this is the case there are several types of roofing gutters available to deal with this situation !

Irregardless, let us here from you ? Big Al !