The last few days we have had a lot of rain, most of which pooled up to my house foundation. I've managed to divert most of it temporarily to a location further from my house, but it's still an issue. This section of the house is in an L shape with a sidewalk that connects each corner. I have a hill in front of my house and although I don't get a lot of water from it, I do get a lot from my gutter system. I need a way to remove the water from this area without destroying my sidewalk. The ground slopes into my house, need a way to either have it slope away or a drain system installed. Please help!
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Water close to the house is a serious issue and you should examine the inside of the house where the water is pooling to see if there is any dampness. In my area there are contractors busy all the time with houses that have water issues. The complete professional solution is to trench around the house, apply a plastic membrane to the foundation and back fill.
That is quite costly and for your situation a spade and $25 worth of plastic can resolve or postpone the problem.
Buy a length of 4" drain pipe, perforated with sleeve at a local hardware store.
Dig a trench 6" deep next to the house sloped downhill
end the trench just before your sidewalk
get a large rigid plastic bucket about 12" tall or more and 12" in diameter and cut the bottom out
dig a hole about 12" to 18" deep and the diameter of the bucket
insert the bucket in the hole so that the top of the bucket is 6" below ground level
fill to to the top with rocks that will not pack down (round is best but not too important what shape they are. This is a french drain connecting to a dry well.
lay the drain pipe in the trench and angle it into the bucket
cover the top of the bucket with landscape fabric or geotextile (something that will not rot and will not allow soil in)
if you have more landscape fabric put a layer over the drain pipe
back fill with soil
Job done!
I have added some poorly done annotations to the picture you supplied. The idea is to get the water away from the house. It does not matter what the high point is as you are adding a low point with the dry well or drain. Add the dry well as far away as possible from the house and provide a slope for the drain pipe away from the house. You will need a level or laser level but if you can see a slope in the ditch you dig that is good enough.
