Finally began construction

[ybor_knight]

Well I finally got to begin digging for pond yesturday. We immediately ran into problems though. What we thought was simply a birbath laying on the ground in our work area turned out to have a poured concrete bottom under ground. We spent most of our day trying to find the bottom edge of it to assess the situation. We're guess its about 600 lbs so I got a comealong and recruited some more help for today to try and get this thing out of our way. I did manage to get the long line of plumbing run and buried for between pump and biofalls. Back to digging soon I hope.

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[Terri]

Let the fun begin.... :grin:

What is behind the brick wall?

[Jackie Ramo]

What is that in the middle of the hole?

[Busy B]

First pic..wow...that's neat!

Is that the same thing that came out of the hole??

[Ian]

Nice spot for the pond right in front of a big window. That is a big bird bath! Hand digging no fun with concrete...

[ybor_knight]

Well we were able to remove the underground concrete base to the birdbath using one of those strapdowns truck drivers use on their loads. It had a comealong on it so we draped it over the concrete and around a tree and then had 2 people preying with one cranking the comealong. Once we got it on its end it wasn't too bad to roll out of the area. I should have had my wife take some pictures of us getting it out, but I wasn't thinking. We pretty much have it shaped out to the 1 foot level for the ledge. On to the deeper digging on Tuesday and next weekend. Suppose to rain here all the rest of the week so its covered with a tarp for now. What a days work!

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[Jackie Ramo]

A very productive day for sure. Looking good.

I'll point out that although many plants like a 12 inch shelf so do raccoons and other preditors. Plants can be individualy raised if the shelf is deeper. I find 16 inches keeps the racoons out of my pond.
They like to be able to touch bottom when they reach in.

[ybor_knight]

The shelves will actually serve as a place to stack stone up to the top in order to give an appearance of being lined in stone. That way I can have my water level acroos the stone and not have black showing. I'm planning a bog filter on side for plants.

[Jackie Ramo]

Thanks for the clarification. Looking forward to more pics.

[marla]

Looking good, are you going to incorporate the huge bird bath. Keep the pictures coming.

[Koidaddy]

Wow!! looks great.

Now, I don't want to burst your bubble, but have you checked with your municipality to see if there are any bylaws as to the minimum distance a pond can be built from your home. Where I live it's 5 feet. I learned this after the fact. My pond is just short of the legal minimum. When our yard was reviewed by a city inspector he kindly overlooked my oversight.

Keep us posted!!
Best regards,
Chris
!dude

[ybor_knight]

Wow!! looks great.

Now, I don't want to burst your bubble, but have you checked with your municipality to see if there are any bylaws as to the minimum distance a pond can be built from your home. Where I live it's 5 feet. I learned this after the fact. My pond is just short of the legal minimum. When our yard was reviewed by a city inspector he kindly overlooked my oversight.

Keep us posted!!
Best regards,
Chris
!dude
Wow, I never thought of looking into the city's requirements. I'll just have to hope for the best. At least the house is paid for and I already have a line of credit opened on the home so I shouldn't ever have to worry about what a surveyor says until I try and sell one day. Hopefully being in a back yard with privacy fencing the city will never know. Utilities are all checked from outside the fencing. I'll have to keep my fingers crossed.

My wife wants to use the birdbath in the front of the house. I told her there was a large crack from lifting it out, but she's confidant that I can fix that. So it sounds like she has plans from me to do something with it already.

I'm going to try to cut out of work a little early today so I can get back to work on some digging between rainy days here. I run a print shop and a local stone company had ordered some signs some time back. I offered the owner to run a few extra in exchange for a good price on my stone so I may go see her this afternoon and try to work the deal. I'm hoping to get about 30% off on a pallet of some stone for my perimeter and water fall.

[Jackie Ramo]

You'll want a rounded edge stone for the edge. You fish smashing into sharp edges during spawning will not be a pretty sight.

[ybor_knight]

You'll want a rounded edge stone for the edge. You fish smashing into sharp edges during spawning will not be a pretty sight.

I'll have to keep that in mind, I hadn't heard that before.

[Jackie Ramo]

Both koi and goldfish spawn by smashing into the female to squeese the eggs out. The female can take a lot of damage just hitting the liner. Now I have smooth rocks in my pond and the females have all come out uninjurred so far.

[ybor_knight]

Made it a little deeper this afternoon. Should be able to finish digging tomorrow and set the liner and plumbing this weekend. I can't waite to finally get some water in and get it cycled!

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[Jackie Ramo]

You sure are a dedicated worker. How deep is it, how many gallons are you going to end up with?

[marla]

Ditto to what Jackie said, do you have a heating pad and chiropractor handy. Short time for that dig, I foresee strained mucsles.

[ybor_knight]

Well, I was on a heating pad all evening. :sad: I feel pretty good today though. I'm just so excited to get this pond going that I can't stop working until my body's just ready to quit on me. I was planning every detail of this out for 2 months waiting on the weather to warm up a little and now I have to fit digging time in between this spring showers. Its suppose to rain Thursday and Friday here, but weekend looks good, then showers again.

It's about 3" at the deep end and 2" at the waterfall end. I still need to expand around edges and slope the bottom, but I hope to complete that this afternoon. It should end up at about 1400 gallons upon completion.

[Terri]

It's about 3" at the deep end and 2" at the waterfall end. Ummmm that's shallow :frisbee: :grin:
3' is not bad,.... since you're still digging why not go 4' or 5'? Lots of +'s for being deeper - temperature stability being one(winter & summer).

[Jackie Ramo]

I agree with Terri. The complaint that 100% of ponders have after the first year is. I wish it was bigger and deeper. So since you are there. Also why have a 2 ft depth at the waterfall? Go deep the entire way. Lilies if you were thinking of them don't like water movement so putting them up by the waterfall won't work well. If you want lilies they do well on small patio tables and give the fish a place to hide.

[Terri]

Just a few thoughts from the peanut gallery (me) :grin:
Since you're going with the retro-BD be sure to 'gradually' slope the pond bottom to the area where the vac'drain will be sitting, so the bottom is a shallow bowl shape with about a 12" to 16" sqft area that is level where the drain will sit. This will emmensely help to remove crap ... and with Jackie's suggestion about the depth under the water fall,... this will also help 'push' the waste to the drain.

It is a good idea to have a shelf in the pond for getting in and out should one need to...

[ybor_knight]

I had thought that a 2 foot depth at waterfall would allow me to slope toward the drain. I guess I can go with more of the bowl shape to have a little more depth. Unfortuanately 3" is my limit with my liner size. I suppose I could roll out the liner and see if they were generous enough to give me a bonus couple of feet. :unsure:
You think I should leave one small level spot for a table for the lillies to stand on?

[OttawaPonder]

If you make your pond big enough you are able to enjoy it more - as it gives you many more options...

I put my lillies on those plastic square thingys - name slips my mind. I make sure to place them to the far right of my watefall. Like others said before they like still water.

Note: if you make the water roll over the last rock - so it has a couple of inches to drop into the pond - instead of splashing forward off the last rock of your waterfall - will also help keep the water from moving to much in a smaller pond.

My pond pics are posted somewhere on here.... And the ones posted show the water moving more then I liked - So the following year I raised the last rock up - the one closer to the pond so it is now a couple of inches higher and the water movement last year was hardly any thing - unlike the years before.

Good Luck,

[ybor_knight]

I put my lillies on those plastic square thingys - name slips my mind. I make sure to place them to the far right of my watefall. Like others said before they like still water.

Note: if you make the water roll over the last rock - so it has a couple of inches to drop into the pond - instead of splashing forward off the last rock of your waterfall - will also help keep the water from moving to much in a smaller pond.

Are you talking about milk crates as the plastic things? That would work as well as anything, but what I'm wondering about is if I shape my bottom like a bowl for the vac drain to work properly, how can I set something on the bottom to hold lilies? Whatever I use it would tip over or slide toward the drain.

I'm not quite sure I'm visualizing your waterfall suggestion right. Are you talking about raising up a stone for the falls to splash onto as oppose to spilling directly into the pond?

[Jackie Ramo]

The bowl shape needs just to be shallow not a v shaped hole. As long as their is a bit of a slant the debris will find its way to the bottom drain. Those wobble wedges they sell at Rona and HD should be enough to level any milk cart or patio table. I prefer the little patial tables and there are no places for the fish to get stuck.

[ybor_knight]

I have most of the stone laid out. Just need the finishing touches on the landscaping.

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[Jackie Ramo]

Lot of work in only a few weeks, good for you. The waterfall picture is terrific. A few more plants and it will look like it has been there forever. Fish look happy

[ybor_knight]

Well I think I'm finally finished with the project including all the surrounding landscape. It really turned out lovely. The wife and I spend countless hours out near the pond enjoying the tranquility of the waterfall and watching the beautiful fish.

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[Peg]

WOW! looks great. Looks like the dogs like it to. Have they been simming in it yet?

[Jackie Ramo]

Nothing like a job finished to make one feel good. Looks great but you need a bench near the pond so you can sit and enjoy it :frisbee: :smile:

[Koidaddy]

Wow, Great job!... such determination!

Love the photos ~ that overview shot looks like a tree climber to me!

Keep those photos coming.
KD
:grin:

[Terri]

Looks great!!!! Well worth the effort :-)

[luke frisbee]

Ok Now I am confused...
You can REALLY finish a pond? :lol:

[ybor_knight]

Nothing like a job finished to make one feel good. Looks great but you need a bench near the pond so you can sit and enjoy it :frisbee: :smile:

Yeah I said something to the wife jokingly about the pond project being pretty well finished and how was I going to spend my time. She told me she saw an interesting book called 2x4 furnature and it has woodworking designs to build things like that. Being an avid DIYer can keep you pretty busy. :grin:

[ybor_knight]

WOW! looks great. Looks like the dogs like it to. Have they been simming in it yet?

No the dogs stay out of it thankfully. We did have a squirrel that was running for its life from the dogs go leaping across it the other day. It came up about a foot short and had to swim for the bank to continue its flight for escape. It was so funny to watch! :lol:

[Jackie Ramo]

Yeah I said something to the wife jokingly about the pond project being pretty well finished and how was I going to spend my time. She told me she saw an interesting book called 2x4 furnature and it has woodworking designs to build things like that. Being an avid DIYer can keep you pretty busy. :grin:


Yep, nothing like a wife to keep one busy. :lol: Too bad my hubby is too busy with his own projects to do mine. Although he did build a bench a few years ago so I guess I can't complain although i like to :wink: