im sure this question has been asked a million times on here but i could not find it in the archives. How much does it cost and how is the cost calculated on for example a one acre pond, say 10ft deep on average. not going out here and getting farmer fred down the street but hiring someone that does this type of work. im located in south central indiana. i understand that there are unexpected things that could drive price up and things like that, but im just talking on the average what would it cost...? digging, hauling, drain, the whole 9 yards..thank you

All the answers you will get will tell you it depends on your soil and topography.

When I first started looking a general guesstimate I found is about $10,000/acre is a decent planning factor.

thanks for the input mike so a soil test is a for sure thing? how much does that generally cost? or is that something i could do with a backhoe my self

I am not a pro but if you are going to spend the $$ to have a big hole dug, I would have the dirt man come in and check the soil.

Also one thing I have seen in everything I have read is "get a pond builder with pond building experience, not just a dirt guy".

The perfect pond book they sell on here is a great resource as well.

thanks i appreciate the feed back

Boy I wish that I could get a one acre pond dug for 10Gs

It really all depends on what the contractor runs into, how deep you want it, dig a hole in a field vs damming a ravine, etc. Some contractors seem to do work by the hour whereas others are cubic yards of dirt moved. Mine did a 1/2 acre pond on the site of an old dried up pond. Not much dirt had to be moved, but he didn't get to go as deep as I had hoped. it only took 3 guys 2 10 hour days to complete mine. It ended up costing $2500, but I traded some work and got it for $950. It was a simple pond but it is a shot in the dark. I didn't put in any overflow pipes (it has no where to overflow to so it will just back up even more if it gets too high). These are just some of the risks I took to have a cheaper fishing hole.

welcome to the site from another fellow hoosier.

I had a 3/4 ac. pond dug in 07 and the excavators bill was $5200 No dirt had to be hauled off and ite 9 1/2' deep. I put my overflow pipes in before it filled with a rented trencher and did all my own seeding and strawing. (bout $800) I feel I got very lucky.

Yeah, I got murdered on cost, but 15' ave with 0.6 acres. They hit really hard-packed clay and very large rocks so the estimated time went up. So $9500 for this. Quoted $6500 with no drain pipe, just overflow.

Really wish for a drain pipe now that I saw what it looks like with 1" of heavy rain in 20 minutes. 20' wide, 6" deep river on the outlet, with barely any grass yet. Had some washouts but not serious. Working on getting good grass started again this weekend.

wow Squid, now that's a flood! I wonder what it might cost to dredge that pond later.