Cost to build a pond??

[slowrev]

The posts about soil type, etc are very important to follow, otherwise you can wind up with a pond that only holds water in the wet season when you don't need it. Another consideration can be crawdads, any in the pond area ? Even with lots of clay those little suckers can cause a pond not to hold water.

 

[cowboydoc]

I would suspect that the 5-8k prices are just for digging a hole and letting it fill in. To properly build a pond you need to first determine if you are going to have the runoff to fill the pond. Then you need to determine what the specs of the pond will be where you are going to put it. It may have to be bigger than a 1/2 acre to make it work properly. The fill will have to be calculated, run-off, drain pipe, berm, even the wind direction and shaping of the pond. All of these things are considered when building a good pond. When the actual building begins you need to dig down until you get to the soil that will hold the water. Then a core trench needs to be done where your dam is going to go and the proper width up to the berm needs to be done to assure you are going to hold water. I've seen way too many cheap ponds done that are a mess in a couple years. You need to have an overflow area as well as a pipe outlet to slowly let water out. If you don't the water will run over your dam and you will have a mess in no time.

A properly prepared and finished pond is going to be in $15-25k range. I just did a new one last year that was a little over an acre and it the cheapest bid I got on it was $18k. I did most of it myself and hired a couple other guys with dozers so it didn't take as long and still had $12k in it when I was done and that was with me doing over a 1/3 of the work. I should have just hired it out when I was done.

Don't just make a hold and let it fill up. It will cost way less to do it right the first time and you will have a pond to enjoy for many years instead of constantly fixing it or paying to do it right later.

 

[PineRidge]

Richard I agree with you on the higher prices to plan and excavate a pond that is a bit more involved than merely digging a hole in flat low land. That was the reason I purposely omitted my finished price on my last post. Between the engineer and the excavator mine was a tad over 10 grand for my 1/2 acre pond. It was money well spent in our opinion however.

 

[Larry_Van_Horn]

Eric,
Glad to see Richard and Mike chime in here singing the same tune. I would add in addition that even after the pond is properly engineered and constructed with sufficient watershed to fill it, you are just beginning. If that 1/2 acre pond sits out in the sun all spring summer without attention you will have a nice pea-green soup. So you need aerators / water movement to keep it nice. I am currently installing a 15,000 GPH pump for a waterfalls and in addition I have a fountain. To run these I need electricity - a run of 500 feet. I would add that into your calculus as well. I love out pond and am spending countless hours on my dozer and tractor relandscaping and creating desireable features. I wish you luck.
Best,
Larry

 

[MarkV]

Eric,

Ask some questions over at Pondboss.

MarkV

 

[herdfan]

Thanks for all the good info guys!
I agree with the planning stages. With something like this, it's certainly easier (and cheaper) to do it right the first time!
I've kinda figured on $8 to 10K, but we're still waiting on the estimate.

There should be plenty of inflow. We'll be collecting 3 seperate runoffs that never run dry due to multiple speings. After some rain, these things really pump out the water.

We have lots of red clay, but tthere is some shale in it too, which the contractor said can cause some problems with leaks, so there may be some hauling involved getting the pond lined. He said gray clay was better?

We're planning on proper aeration in addition to proper dam and berm construction.

Slowrev - Funny you should mention the crawdads. I did see 1 crawdad the other day in the creek bed. It's the first one I've seen out here in almost 3 years. How big of a problem are they? Any way to control/eliminate them? Natural predators?


MarkV - Thanks for the link! Looks like it will help out a lot.

I'll let yall know more details when I get them. Thanks for letting me tap into your all's experience!

Eric

 

[Alan L.]

It depends on how much dirt has to be moved. My 1.5 acre tank was about $10,000 as a part of $15,000 overall dirt work that was done. My building pad was built from the pond diggings. At the time, the contractor was charging $.90 per cubic yard of dirt moved, but its probably higher in other areas.

One suggestion. Try to salvage the topsoil. Put it in a pile, dig the pond and make the pad, then spread the topsoil on top. I lost about 3 or 4 acres of topsoil by not doing this.

 

[Alan L.]

I have lots of crawdads in and around my pond. I haven't noticed any kind of leakage associated with them at all. They are a good thing to have around if you are building a fishery. The bass love them, and some ponds just don't support them for some reason. I have also dumped a few pounds of live crawfish there were left over from some crawfish boils my son-in-law has done here on our place. I don't partake, in fact I hate the way they are cooked alive. I rescue as many as I can and put them in the tank (where the bass probably eat most of them). /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[ronbo3]

I had a pond dug last October, and the first thing I did when planning it was to contact the local Soil and Conservation Service people for info. It is a US Government agency, and their advice was free. Their man came out to my 11acres and showed me the best place for the pond and gave me info on local contractors who do pond construction. In some areas, gov't grant $$ is available to help build your pond if it meets certain soil/water conservation conditions.
Good luck, and enjoy your pond!!

 

[MicroPilot]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( ...Slowrev - Funny you should mention the crawdads. I did see 1 crawdad the other day in the creek bed. It's the first one I've seen out here in almost 3 years. How big of a problem are they? Any way to control/eliminate them? Natural predators?... )</font>

Raccoons, Skunks, 'Possums!!!!

I think I'd rather have the Crawfish!!! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif