Pond building in NJ. Help me with contractor, pricing, and advice.

[emanaresi]

We are about to start building a home on our 41 acre slice of the pine barrens. One problem we have run into is that we want to have a full basement, but have a clay layer and perched water table at about 5'. So, in order to build a full basement and grade the house well, we will need about 2000+yds of fill. Local rates put fill at anywhere from $125-225 per load. So, I figure about 16 yds/load compacted, we are talking about 15,000-30,000 of dirt! We would like to dig about a 1/4-1/2 acre pond and move the soil up to the house for fill. I have had one contractor come out and give me a price. I was really shocked! I was quoted $50,000 to clear the trees, excavate and move the soil up to the house, and pack the clay on the banks of the pond. I will not be moving any soil off site, and we shouldn't need to bring in any materials because there is lots of clay present. I am hoping that I can get a much lower quote, because at $50k, I'll be buying dirt. It just doesn't fit into the budget.

So, my questions are, is this quote even a little reasonable? Or am I right in thinking that it is really high?

Does anyone know a good contractor who has experience building ponds in NJ who would want to quote the work?

What do you guys think?

 

[dave1949]

It sounds high to me, but NJ is certainly going to more expensive than here. I would think ~$30K is about as cheap as it will get for your area. 1/4 to 1/2 acre is not a small hole.

If you could get close to $30K, you have your pond and your fill for one price.

How much do you want the full basement? Will you have enough fill that your house won't look like an anthill sticking up? Takes a lot of dirt and landscaping to visually blend that terrain.

 

[emanaresi]

The house will be up on a hill a bit, but that is ok. The property has some slope already so the side of the house that is uphill only needs 2' or so of fill. The low side needs closer to 5' of fill. My hope was that rather than spending the money on fill, I could build a pond and get the fill for free or excavate the fill and get a pond for free, depending on how you look at it. It certainly is not a small hole, but, its not huge either...

I am waiting on calls form a few contractors that I have found online. I hate to hire contractors without referrals, but if they can provide good references, I guess we can work something out.

 

[deerefan]

The house will be up on a hill a bit, but that is ok. The property has some slope already so the side of the house that is uphill only needs 2' or so of fill. The low side needs closer to 5' of fill. My hope was that rather than spending the money on fill, I could build a pond and get the fill for free or excavate the fill and get a pond for free, depending on how you look at it. It certainly is not a small hole, but, its not huge either...

I am waiting on calls form a few contractors that I have found online. I hate to hire contractors without referrals, but if they can provide good references, I guess we can work something out.

Get a lump sum and hourly rates for man/ machine. Also, if yoj want a bigger pond, use what dirt you need then offer excess to contractor for use at another site. What type of equipment is he using? Tractor and dirt pan? Excavator and truck? This greatly determines price.

 

[dave1949]

Does the NJ DNR/Wildlife Conservation have any pond support services? Sometimes they do planning or give grants. If so, they may have a list of contractors they have worked with successfully.

 

[SPIKER]

Price is high for what is around Ohio pricing, NJ is probably a lot higher tho anyhow.

I would look at building with a Walk Out basement (to the low side.) which means a bit of dirt can be pulled out of the LOW side to make is LOWER and moved to the high side to make it HIGHER. There is a post in Rural Living "Building a house in 90 days" there are some really nice photos in that post of what I'm talking about. The contractor/owner did what I'm saying and really turned out NICE for the TBN members mom.

For the POND and the house be sure to pull away the top soil then do the work and put the top soil back on TOP. The pond is actually better done with a PAN rather than a bulldozer or track-hoe & truck unless you have to transport the dirt off site.

Mark

 

[emanaresi]

He said he'd be using excavator and bull dozers. The dirt only needs to move about 150-250 feet from pond to house site. I talked to the local NRCS office. They were not very helpful because we are not agricultural.

We have gone back and forth and back again about a walk out basement. The problem is that the basement sill not be finished until some time in the future. Creating a walkout completely changes the flow through the house and how it would be used. As it is designed now, without the walk out, we will have a deck attached to the great room that will allow easy access to the backyard. If we put a walkout under the deck, we would need a full flight of stairs to get from the great room to the back yard. You really have to design the house from the start for a walkout. Unfortunately we found out about the water table and clay when we were all ready very committed to some things on the house.

 

[Coyote machine]

Can you dig a pond in the NJ Pine Barrens without getting a Conservation Department or similar permit? I would seriously think NOT!
Without proper State approval you could be in serious do-do. Just saying- you should be in touch with the Natural Resources people in your part of NJ. You can't just decide to dig a pond, even on your 'own' land, even in VT, so in NJ it must be way more restricted.

 

[Jeff F.]

Wow 50 grand sounds high to me. How many trees does he need to take down? I put in an 1.5 acre pond for 10 grand although it is a wildlife pond so it is shallow. I would contact some more contractors for bids.

 

[emanaresi]

While we are in the pine barrens, we are actually far enough on the edge that we are not under the regulation of the pinelands commission. I did speak with the natural resource people. We shouldn't have any major permitting issues but that will be fully explored.