Pond Construction story and images

I had no experience building ponds when I started this project, although I had maintained several ponds when I lived in Southern California. A friend had built a small, above-ground pond in my yard (he needed a place to keep his water lilies) and I had become hooked on ponds. When I moved to the bay area, I missed having a pond and decided to build one for myself.

I started my resarch with the do-it-yourself books published by Sunset and Ortho, but still had many unanswered questions. A friend at work had taken a class in pond building at a local college, and gave me much advice and access to her class notes. I then started calling various local suppliers and asking questions. I found many knowledgable people who were willing to offer advice.

The landscape plan (36kb)

I was finally ready to start acquiring materials. My plan was to:

build a back yard pond and stream with a recirculating pumping system.
use a flexible liner for both the pond and the stream bed
try to make the pond look as natural as possible, blending it into a Japanese-style garden landscape
concentrate on water lilies and other aquatic plants
stock the pond with goldfish and possibly a few koi
try to achieve an ecologically balanced system that would not require constant filtration or high maintenance
make the pond easily accessible from the house by building a wooden deck that would cantilever over the pond.

I chose to use a liner made of 36-mil Hypalon, a form of butyl rubber I ordered from New World Manufacturing. I bought my pump from Grainger's, a local wholesale supply company, on a recommendation from a local koi breeder. I chose a 1/3 HP Teel pump, which turned out to be a little more pump than I really needed. I purchased many of my plumbing parts from Potomac Waterworks, including the PVC main drain, the surface skimmer, the ball valves, the basket strainer, and the bulkhead fittings for running pipes through the liner without leaking.

Several pond experts suggested that I make my pond at least two feet deep, with straight sides, to discourage raccoons. I decided to follow this advice, and ended up with a maximum depth of about three feet.

My plumbing plan included a ball valve for each intake and outflow of the pump. I wanted to be able to control the level of the stream without restricting the overall flow through the system. I also wanted to control the amount of skimmer and drain suction. The pipe unions allow me to replace the pump and/or basket strainer without completely replacing the plumbing within the pump housing.

I later made some changes to the plumbing when I added my biofilter and waterfall during the '95 season.

The digging begins. I started digging in late August of 93, first removing the sod layer and saving it for the neighbors. We used a garden hose to form the outline of the hole before digging.

Soaking the clay to soften it. After the sod layer was removed, the hard work began. I hadn't realized how little top soil was under that lawn. The hard clay started about six inches down.
I found that the only way to proceed was to soak it overnight with water, and then slice off a layer about 6 inches thick. I repeated this procedure until I had a hole three feet deep.

The clay soil did make it easy to sculpt the walls and get them smooth and almost vertical. It took me two weeks of digging (probably about 60 hours) to finish the rough hole.

The hole is dug and the plumbing is in! The open pump housing is in the top left of the image. The vertical pipe in the lower right will penetrate the bottom of the liner using a bulkhead fitting and eventually support the surface skimmer.

The main drain is above and to the left of the skimmer pipe. The horizontal pipe that enters the pond on the left side of the image is a return line from the pump to the pond.
Another pipe, hidden in the shadows in this image, runs from the pump housing to the head of the stream, which is out of the frame to the upper left.

The pump housing: I used a ball valve on both intakes (main drain and skimmer) and both ouflows (pond wall and stream) of the pump. The basket strainer is in the lower center of the above image, on the intake side of the pump, which is against the right side of the pump housing.
I later added a 24-hour timer to the housing to control the pump's hours of operation.

The wall is back-filled with clay over the plumbing. After the plumbing was in, I filled the trenches in the walls of the hole with clay.
The pipe in the upper left of this image will feed the pool at the head of the stream.

The bottom is back-filled with clay over the plumbing. Before filling the trenches in the floor with clay, I poured cement around the drain and the bulkhead fitting for the skimmer. The skimmer will attach to a pipe that will be threaded into the fitting. The cement will help anchor the skimmer and drain in place.

Also notice the pressure treated 2x4s along the edge of the concrete patio on the right. The liner will end up covering these boards, and then being covered by another set of 2x4s placed directly above these (think of a sandwich with 2x4 bread and liner lunchmeat.) I improvised this arrangement when I realized that I wanted the water level to come as close to the underside of the deck as possible.

Next, I placed the liner for the pond and began filling it. As soon as I had a few inches of water in the pond, I tested the pump and plumbing system. Later, I dug the stream bed and placed another liner over it, overlapping the pond liner.

Stones are placed over the stream's liner. Here you can see the black Hypalon liner covering the stream bed. At the top of the image you can almost see me placing stones over the liner. I used much of the dirt I dug from the pond to build up the area around the stream.
I tried to grade the yard to appear as if the stream and pond were placed where water would naturally tend to flow and collect, while at the same time trying to avoid having actual runoff from rain storms flow into the pond or stream (easier said than done.)

Pond and stream are in place. The image to the left was taken about three months after I started digging. The pump housing now has a lid, the skimmer is in place, flat rocks have been mortared around the edge, and I've placed a 600-pound white granite boulder at the pond's edge in the upper left of this image.

I later installed the deck over the concrete patio that appears on the left, cutting the individual boards to fit around the boulder. The deck is cantilevered about one foot over the pond.

From here, you can move on to any of the other pond pages:

	The hole is dug and the plumbing is in! The open pump housing is in the top left of the image. The vertical pipe in the lower right will penetrate the bottom of the liner using a bulkhead fitting and eventually support the surface skimmer.
The main drain is above and to the left of the skimmer pipe. The horizontal pipe that enters the pond on the left side of the image is a return line from the pump to the pond. Another pipe, hidden in the shadows in this image, runs from the pump housing to the head of the stream, which is out of the frame to the upper left.

	Pond and stream are in place. The image to the left was taken about three months after I started digging. The pump housing now has a lid, the skimmer is in place, flat rocks have been mortared around the edge, and I've placed a 600-pound white granite boulder at the pond's edge in the upper left of this image.
I later installed the deck over the concrete patio that appears on the left, cutting the individual boards to fit around the boulder. The deck is cantilevered about one foot over the pond.