Pond Location

[Culchie]

Good Lord Capewind. You might as well just dig a regular pond and stock it for fishing, if you have all that room. :razz: I wish I was out in the country like some of you guys. My yard is in a mess right now with unfinished projects going on. I'm building a deck on back of my house. It will only be a couple feet above the proposed pond. I have 28 feet between my deck and front of my garage. The pond will go between them, close to the deck. About the length of the deck. ( 12'-16'). I poured a pad for a hot tub on the upper side of the deck. So I won't be building outward on the upper side of the pond beyond the end of my deck. I will have 30 feet between the low side of the pond and my neighbor's property fence. I also plan on putting a privacy fence between the pond and his property, about 13 feet away from the low side of the pond. So I guess my biggest concern now would be drainage I hope this is not too hard to envision until I can take pics.

 

[capewind]

I wish we were out in the country some place! We are located on "Cape Cod" but do have a lot of land for our area. You really do have a lot of options. I wish my hubby was more into the chat boards, as he is a landscaper, and installs ponds professional (only a couple a year since they can be pricey). He is the one (of us) that knows all the filtration things (not I at all, I know enough to scrape by), how to make grade changes work to your advantages, what is RIGHT and what you can get away with. Dont ever judge my yard though as professional. Our house is like the shoe makers kids LOL. He is tired of installing nice ponds for everyone else but us, so finally going big

Have some before and after pics (with changes made along the way) of one of the ponds he did in this pc, so will post them here. He did EVERYTHING in these pics including the different walls, and even the lawn with irrigation. The only thing not his was the fence, and the chairs He is even the one who stocked it with fish and maintains it

 

[addy1]

You could dig a hole fill it with gravel, cover with some landscape fabric to keep dirt and debris out of the gravel. This would fill with any excess water and soak in. We did this in arizona for drainage worked great.

 

[Culchie]

Capewind, I think pic 7 would be most like mine. I hope I don't need that many rocks though. Thanks addy. Getting all kinds of ideas here now. That would be good for my limited space.

 

[sissy]

I went over 4 feet but not because of winter but because of heat and 4 feet is more than enough as long as we don't get another winter like the 2010 winter .But 4 feet is more than enough even for that .Go on you tube and look at some video's step by step build for waterfalls and even ponds .I used it for some of my ideas .Having that high side out in the middle may be to your advantage as it would be easy to take concrete block and make a dry set wall to tuck your filter into and make it really easy to get at to clean and maintain .You have it really easy that way

 

[capewind]

Just keep looking at lots of pictures, and the ideas will come. Remember too, you dont have to do the entire project at once. Get the liner in and secure, and you can add the landscaping as you go. I cant tell you how many times our ideas have changed. Heck, we were just now walking around the yard again, and what was supposed to be a river and bigger pond next year is still that, but now make it 2 rivers, giving an island planting bed, plus another small pond (under 1000 gallons) for his Taro's and a few other plants...

 

[capewind]

We are at 4.5 to 5' depth, both for winter, and the fact that I wanted water volume. Only had so much surface area to work with. Our is actually above grade, and made a dirt mound to get it where it is.

I need to go find the proper folder to put construction pics in, and how to add a link to my signature instead of posting pics all over the place.

 

[sissy]

Remember don't be in a rush to cut the liner I know mine settled about 6 inches and left extra and glad I did as I raised the sides up 2 inches all around .Just fold the extra under and save it for the you never know . :razz:

 

[CometKeith]

Capewind, great before and after pics. I had to go back and look at the first one several times to see if that was really the same spot the pond was built. To start your own construction thread just go to the pond construction section and then hit the button that says start new thread.

 

[fishin4cars]

Culchie, Take a look at my showcase thread. You might get some ideas. My waterfalls do kind of come out of nowhere. I had always had streams and wanted one but my land didn't work well for a stream. I had to build up as the land was so flat I had no drainage away from the pond. but it also had about a 5" drop from one side to the other. I have one that is pretty much a formal pond, and one that is more natural. I wanted a bridge but I also wanted one pond for lily's and goldfish, and one for my koi. So I wanted the appearance that they were joined. All hasn't gone as planned but slowly and surely it's coming together. Hopefully you can at least learn a do or a don't do as you check it out. LOL Good luck and enjoy the build!

 

[capewind]

Thanks Keith, when it is someone else's money, he can really do nice work I threw these in this conversation just to throw out ideas because the before and after are so extreme, but it is hard to believe it is the same yard. Even I have to refer to the original before pic to remember just what it looked like in the beginning. Some of the trees were removed, but a couple stayed, and you can find them in the after pics. I want to say that project was started 8-10 years ago. A few years ago the Roman Piza block wall was added, but otherwise, he only goes there twice a year now (spring cleaning/inspection and fall cleaning/inspection, and once in awhile to remove excess fish). I think I started a construction folder for our yard, not that it is much to look at yet. Need to go see if I can find it LOL.

 

[CometKeith]

The pond is great but I was more intrigued by the retaining wall. How much dirt did he have to use to raise up the whole back section between the wall and the road?

 

[capewind]

I honestly dont remember. It wouldnt have been a lot between adjusting the grade (making a level platform for the wall), and these block walls need to be backfilled with a percentile of gravel for proper drainage, so your guess would be as good as mine. Here's a pic of a stage before the retaining wall was installed Sorry it isnt the best quality.

 

[CometKeith]

Wow, That's really nice. The pond and waterfall looks very natural in that location.

 

[dakamp84]

Capewind - love the pictures and design. Very nice.

Culchie - you are on the right path. Keep looking at pictures and asking questions. Everyone on here can be super helpful. My pond has about 2-4' grade (roughly 12' L x 6' W x 3.5' D). I did not build my low side up (to level it out) because of my patio retaining wall. Instead I actually used the grade to my advantage and built the pond into it. I have a very low traffic pond (no one gets into mine - except me ). The biggest trick if you follow my route is to make sure your stone work is level starting about 2 inches below the water line. Your eyes will be drawn to a change in flat surfaces (the water line with the rock). Hope this helps give you more ideas to consider.



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