Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations How close is too close?

I was walking around my pond today trying to figure out how close to place my soon to be constructed home next to the water. The house will have a sand trap style septic system and according to Iowa code can be placed within 50ft from the end of the septic drainage field to the pond.My question is: Is this too close? I have never lived near a body of water before and have never visited this pond during the peak of the summer, I have no clue what kind of odor the pond will generate. I do plan to aerate to help head off any trouble, but I am not able to wait till summer to decied.Any suggestions or horror stories? Thanks in advance.

Here in Texas, the folks that are not afraid of water moccasins build right next to the pond. I have seen decks over-hanging the pond. I dont think that odor will be too big of a problem. It also depends on if you will have any chldren that might wander off and fall in. Just some things to think about.

MrWilly - From experience there at least a couple big things to consider.
1. Basement or no basement. If you want a basement you better stay back from the waterline an appropriate distance. Maybe 20 to 30 ft.
2. If you are using just a crawl space and footer, it will still have be dug down below ground level 6'maybe 7'. 3 to 4 ft depth for the crawl space walls and another 2 to 3 ft for the footer.
3. If you are building on a slab you will still need a substancial footer but prob not 6 to 7 ft deep.
Some contractors will want the dirt to have aged before building on it to minimize shifting of foundation from ground settling after construction. This will depend on how much earth work was done in building the pond walls/basin/fill and clay liner and style of pond construction.
4. A good test is to have the footer contractor dig a hole (bucket wide trench) perpendicular from the edge of the pond in an area where one of the footers could be located. See if this hole fills with water. If it fills with seepage water you are probably too close and your liner is not real tightly sealed. Any footer or wall will then have to withstand continual water on it. These constantly wet walls will need to be built accordingly. Usually, footers always have tile drains along them to minimize water retention against the wall. Water continually against a footer wall or basement wall is often considered bad and has numerous negative effects over time.
5. My advice: the closer you put the house to the pond the BETTER the footer contractor has to be. He should have past experience doing this type thing before. Check other houses he has built close to the water. Talk to the owners. YOU DO NOT WANT YOUR WALLS SHIFTING OR FOUNDATION CRUMBLING/CRACKING after the house is finished. Do not use a contractor that is doing this for the first time unless you can absorb his errors.

My house is 6 feet from the water's edge. When I build my pond I had the contractor put a double wide clay liner on the end of the pond for the house construction site. This double clay liner was 16 ft wide (usual width around here is 8 ft). My footer contractor did not want to get any closer than 6 ft. after results of the footer test hole. We were still dry at 6 ft. with minimal seepage and a brimming full pond. My framing/building contractor said he could cantilever the house out to the edge of the water. But after thinking about it I preferred to see some shoreline while siting in the house. It was a wise decision for me and has worked good so far. I really enjoy the view which includes the shoreline.

Septic tank can be 50 from the pond but the drain field should be away as far as feasable. Closer to 100 feet if posible for the septic drain field. Also consider and discuss with the inspector or contractor a perimeter drain for the septic field.

POND ODORS. Your pond will have odors. In most all typical pond settings, all odors except for a very very few will come from algae. Note: not all algae cause odors. Clear water has basically no odor. The clearer and cleaner the water the fewer times the odors will be noticed. Most common odor will be fishy of varying degrees, depending on the type and abundance of algae. Other possible odors of algae: faintly fishy, geranium, aromatic, grassy, nasturtium, sweet grassy, vile, moldy, candied violets, muskmelon, cucumber, oily. Odors from my pond have been minimal since I manage to minimize algae blooms and use bottom aeration and other things to promote clear water. As above, clear water has no odor. Clear water grows fewer fish pounds per acre!

PS I have geothermal also but I did not want that junk down in my pond bottom.

Oh, yea. Im from Texas. We don't have basements here in Texas. Forgot that might be a concern. Guess you could build a house with a basement right next to the pond, if you want a swimming pool.

I have heard of, but not seen a glass wall in the basement that looks into the pond underwater. That would be neat if you could keep the algae and attached growth off it.

Not much good though if you fertilize the water and have visibilities of around 2 feet.

Hmmmm? glass bottom basement wall with a view of the pond... I like it!