Well. Here it is. The post we all hope never has to happen.

It's October and my pond is 1/10 full. The thing drained 90% from July to September.

Here's the story:

Bought a house, had previously had a pond in the backyard that the owner broke the damn and emptied. Turning the whole back into a giant mud bog from natural springs feeding 24/7.

I hired a family friend (mistake 1) to evaluate the area and help me renovate and expand the pond. He cleared a very cool (albeit shallow) pond and built a damn and assured me everything would be good. Big rains came and pond filled up. But never really stayed full. Kept losing fluctuating feet at a time.
Last July 2013 it went half empty. My family friend stopped answering phone calls and ignored me. I call a different family friend excavating company. He came out and looked at it, told me his plan and then I didn't see him till may of this year when the pond had filled back up. he dug test holes around the hills surrounding the pond, said that they were filled with shale and water running through the shale. but didn't look to be coming from pond.
This month he finally came back out and dug test holes all over and said damn is sound, but bottom of the pond is made up of a sandy rocky mixture not condusive to pond bottoms. Said I need a liner or a ton of clay. searched all over my property for clay and couldn't find any.

Fast forward to now. He sends me a bill and nothing further. I can't leave a half full mess in the back yard, from what was once a gorgeous Large Mouth Bass filled heaven. But I've been left high and dry and need some help.

I'll looking into the local gas well folks to maybe try and get a used pond liner...but I need a good reputable company to help me fix my mess of a pond. I want an oasis in the back yard, all I have is a giant mess of weeds and a deep end.

I'm bout 30 miles north of Pittsburgh.

Help.

Liners sound like a good idea but are pretty darn expensive and certainly not close to bullet proof.

Have you thought of draining the whole thing and bringing in about 2 ft of solid clay; then packing with a sheepsfoot roller?

Another potential pond to use the polymer sealants in. If it doesn't perfectly seal the pond, no harm done at much lesser expense than hauling clay.

See this thread:
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=390724&Board=20

Wow, good stuff. Would love to hear what the deal is from folks using that. If I have no other options by spring I will be putting in Polymer sealant by hand if I have too..

I agree with Dave 100% - repack with clay and sheepsfoot - it's tried an true method for sealing ponds. These chemical treatments are still in their relative infancy, are pricey, and until I meet someone on the forum who can document their experiences [positive or negative] I am reluctant to advise anyone to experiment. If the cost were lower, would be easier to justify trying. While the websites for these companies cite successes, I would feel far more confident if one of us [PBF members] could document their experience. I have a small pond I might be able to try an experiment with in the spring and could report back.

Before recommending it, I'd want to see success over a period of 2-3 years minimum. Too many stories here of people trying things like that (Bentonite too) that work for a year, but not 2 years.

My pond is leaky, but I'm not willing to do the R&D for a company and have to pay them to do it for them too..... If they want to come in and use my pond and payment is due in 3 years minimum only if it holds water, I'll be the first to give them my address.

Scott

I'm trying to work that angle myself right now on the small, cedar pond leak. The $500 cost they quoted me seems a small investment in the positive marketing they'd receive on Pond Boss forum if successful.

TJ, how many square ft. of pond bottom would that $500 cover, and does the soil makeup of the pond bottom affect the application rate?

I don't recall, it seemed a rather small area. Yes, soil does affect rates. I can't imagine anything sealing your sandpit pond, except clay....can you?

No, but I can keep hoping!!!!

Back when I refurbished the pond, I asked around to get an idea of what it'd cost to line it 24" thick with clay. With the price of diesel just north of $4/gallon, including machine time at two sites (no clay available within about 8 miles), trucking, pumping water out, etc., etc. it would have run close to $30K to have it brought in, placed and compacted.

Well boys. I'm now thousands of $ in the hole but found what I think is a legit pond builder in the area. (not a family friend earth mover)

He came out and surveyed the scene. He thinks that he can help and has several references around the area to check on him with. Saw the mmakeup of my soil and said he wishes he had that available in some of his other projects. So who knows how much this is gonna cost me...

Go talk to the pondowners that he gave you references for. At the very least call them for an opinion and a discussion. What their soils were like, how old the pond is, and how well the pond holds water, would they use him again?

The polymer sealers sound great, but I just can't see where they could work for any fishing pond. The sealing film is very thin and it breaks down/biodegrades fairly quickly. I would think if a fish or animal rooted in the bottom, the seal is broken and your money wasted.

I felt it necessary to comment on my own post here.
Everyone and every thing I read said find someone that knows what they are doing. I went for the family friends that I thought were saving me a few bucks.

Everyone else was correct. Hire someone that knows what they are doing.

I found a guy listed here: http://www.pondboss.com/resource_guide.asp?c=9

Turns out (if you read above) I didn't need a liner of any kind, for any reason. I just needed a pond builder that builds ponds without topsoil in the breast of the dam...

Thanks for the update! I wish everybody would update us on their problems and questions that they had here, just to let us know how things are going.

Let us know how things are going during the fix, and also how they turn out after it's done!