Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Renovating a Pond or Lake? Cost of making a sand pit into a pond

I have a 200 by 200 sand pit about 20 ft deep that I would like to fix to hold water. It has good run off into it, but is all sand. It has a 6 ml liner now that an oil company was going to use. It was never used and they are now going to cover it up. I'd like to use it for a pond, but need a cost to make it hold water. They are going to fill it in next week unless I tell them to leave it.

Bumpty for an expert opinion. Rick, I'm a little confused (I know, nothing new there) are you going to use the liner in the pond construction?

What do the sides of the sand pit look like, are they fairly vertical or are they tapered. I guess what I'm trying to find out is will a lot of dozer work be required to slope your shoreline?

If you could post some photos it might help the experts. (Or at least help me visualize what you've got there).

Is it holding water with the liner installed? It should be easy to tell where the leak is because wouldn't the water just drop to that level?

Wouldn't it just be a matter of finding the leak and patching it or is the whole liner trashed?

He said it was leaking?

"I would like to fix to hold water"
"it has a 6 ml liner"


The post is a little vague. Maybe the oil company took the liner and it's only holding 6 millilitres of water.

The liner is still in and it is holding water fine. The sides are sloped and the shape is great for a pond. I met with a dozer man and he said he could do the dozer work for around $1500. The problem is we have no clay near us. I'm in east Texas, but in one of those sandy areas. It sounds like the clay would be just too expensive to haul in. A liner that would last is about $15,000. I just can't afford that amount right now.

Not sure I understand.

Is it a junky liner? If it is holding water why would you need dozer work done? More runoff?

Yes, it is a junky liner. It just needs clay or something to prevent the water leaking through the sand. The sun and wind we destroy the liner in a few months.

If it is a real sand pit, I don't know what a dozer guy would do for you. When I think of far East Texas, I don't usually expect to hear about sand.

If it were me, and it's not, I probably wouldn't think it was cost justified.

If you can get the liner covered with some dirt it will make the liner last a lot longer.
You have to try it---it is to close not to-- if it does not work you have not lost that much.

How deep is the water now? How much higher do you NEED not want the water to be. If looks isn't important it might be cheaper to just pump out the water and dig it deeper. In East Texas the water table can't be that far down I wouldn't think! I guess it will fluctuate a lot though.