I’m a new company owner, been in business over 2 years. I’ve been running equipment for 10 or so years but never got involved in estimating jobs. It seams ponds are one of the hardest projects to bid on. I am always getting overbid or underbid. As everyone knows it is very hard to talk about pricing methods to your local competitors. Maybe this web forum can help me and a lot of guys on pricing ponds and other excavating jobs.

Clearview:

We have had rough estimates done here, based on the size of a pond, length, height, and width of a dam, and so forth, so some sample calculations are available to peruse. If no one posts any links first, I can try a search for them tomorrow for you.

A good move would be to get a copy of Lusk's "Perfect Pond" book. It will help you get a handle on how much dirt would need moved at each site to do the core, excavate the bowl, etc. And once you know how much dirt needs moved how far, you should be able to figure a bid price, right?

A gave my excavator a copy of the book a couple months ago. He is not particularly bookish, but finished reading through it in 3-4 days. Then he let me know he had already used some of the newly acquired knowledge (he decided he didn't want to mess with a lined pond job).

There are other dirt guys on this forum that might be able to provide some guidance; zhkent and TN Hillbilly come to mind. My opening act on the PB forum centers on exactly the topic you are exploring .
My contractor and I discussed costs at great length. He said that when a job is easy to project a bid on and does not contain any substantial adds or deletes, he will often bid one price with the option of paying at hourly if it comes in under the bid price. He said that he often winds up charging the hourly because it ultimately does come in below the bid price.

If there was ever a topic discussed here where “it all depends” is applicable you found it clearview. I spend a significant amount of my working life determining costs for (construction related) projects and I can tell you first hand, building ponds is no different. At a minimum it requires knowledge of

Basic design elements (size, depth, hardstructure)
Geologic conditions (soil/rock/groundwater)
Logistics (mob-demob costs/access/staging and disposition of excavated material/imported material)
Other Materials - Depending on basic design (drain pipe, concrete spillway, whatever...etc.)
Estimated duration (man hrs and owned or rented equipment hrs and fuel - whatever yer adjusted rates are)
Overhead (averaged insurance and maintenance costs/cost of outside items plus mark up)

Assuming you know how to handle various (geologic) conditions, The estimated duration is by far the hardest one to figure and where most people either make out like bandits or take it in the shorts.

With a good handle on these issues, you can generate an accurate bid. And of course you should be flexible enough to do fixed price or time and materials or a combination of both, whatever suits the client.

My 2c and good luck!

Clearview,

There are 3 basic ways to price building a pond:
Hourly
Cost per cubic yard
Lump sum bid

You will probably want to figure how much dirt needs moved, either embankment or excavated area. Depends on if your just digging out an area (excavated yardage) or damming up an area (embankment yardage).
There are computer programs available, I do it with pen and paper.

Most of the time my price per yard includes saving topsoil and the topsoiling of the dam or spoil area.

Embankment dams that need a core trench should also have a yardage estimate and price per yard for that.

After you have figured the cubic yards you insert your price per yard and get a total price. Translate to an hourly rate if you want.

A couple of thoughts.
You are here on Pond Boss. This can give you an edge if you study some and use this info to help the person building the pond get what they want. Customers tend to have an idea what they want, being able to suggest proven ideas helps. Also some of these things can be done while moving dirt with no trouble, such as a vertical drop after you get down the slope some, or maybe leaving certain trees or shrubs in the right spots for great fish habitat when the pond fills.

If you bid a pond and get it, finish it NICE.
If you bid it to cheap, grin and bear it and do a nice job (and don't beat yourself or the dozer up getting it done, it happens).
That will be the best advertising money you can spend.

Your competitors may share a few things with you, even if it may not be their pond prices. So you may want to check out the Kentucky chapter of the Land Improvement Contractors Association (LICA)
LICA
KENTUCKY
Executive Director: Paul Sandefur
P.O.Box 425
Beaver Dam, KY 42320
Phone: 270-274-3403
Fax: 270-274-4044
Email: ptds1@apex.net