Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Building a dam waves washing away my dam.

my 5 acre pond faces east to west and when the wind blows hard out of the west it has some pretty big waves splashing aginst the dam. Its never been a problem before but its starting to wash away the dam, only a couple of inches are gone so far. Should I just not worry about it or how should I fix it?

The integrity of the dam is one of your most important assets. Now that the erosion has begun, it will be easier for future waves to continually erode the dam. I would rip-rap it. If I knew how to post photos, I'd show you a project we did this past summer. We laid down construction grade fabric and used 5-8" material to armor the tow of the dam. It was a functional fix and it dressed-up the pond. Because the dam had a shallow slope, the whole project was completed in 1.5 days with a skid steer.

Shawn,
I would be very interested in more information about your project. I too have erosion problems on my damn from strong North winds. Hopefully someone here will volunteer to load your photos, I would really like to see them.

If you'd like, email me at pondrx@midwestlake.com and I'll email you back with the photos.

I just went through my photo folder and found the photos. We took a few during the installation process. I'll send those. I'll run up to the pond tomorrow and take the finished project photos that I never took but just realized. The pond is only 5 miles up the road.

I need to read up on how to post photos. Nate told me once about getting an account with an online photo place so that I can post, but I never followed up. I have a lot of photos that people will probably find educational and/or interesting.

Almost all ponds have some kind of water line around the shoreline. The wave action even on a shallow slope causes an erosion problem.
When it is along the dam it could cause some problems.

As Shawn said it is esy to fix,If you can get to it. Rip rap is good there are also erosion control mats thet will work well also.

Rip Rap is just rock that is piled up on the shoreline to absorb the water before it hits the dirt. It's used on rivers and along highways all the time. Crushed concrete is very popular and usually the most affordable, but any rock will do.

Start buying rock and spreading it out. Make it several layers thick so the water can't get through it to the dirt. I've seen places use concrete to hold the rock in place on rivers or culverts where the water is really moving, but for waves, just laying it there will work.

Eddie

You can also see if they sell metal "cages" to place the rock in as well. I see that around a lot of creeks and rivers. They place the rock in metal "cages" to keep the rocks in one place. Seems to work well...

The rock cages are called gabions and an internet search will provide a lot of information. But, they are not pretty, the cages are usually made of chain link fencing.

One of the problems I encountered was erosion caused by rain, it undermined the rip rap I installed.

Shawn's construction fabric underlay might have elimninated or reduced that problem for me.

The gaions are great but are, like Rad said, just there to hold the rocks in place. If the problem is just wave action you may not need them, they are better for moving water like a stream or river.

Gabions? I learn something new every day!

look up land and water there is a lot of info there.

Shaun beat me to it. Yes riprap is recommended. Also not mentioend is this serves are great fish habitat. Bluegill get in the crevices to hide. Shaun call me you are welcome to use my photo page, easy to upload and then share with whomever.