Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Raising dam

Hey guys really enjoying my pond as a hobby. I have a tenth of an acre and wanted to add a little depth and width. Pond holds good so i dont want to disturb it much.

My thought is raise the dam 2 feet. I am thinking that might get me 800 additional sq feet.
Questions: warhershed concerns. Is it worth it. Do i jeopardize the pond. Any thoughts?
I will also stock and reading here now about that.

Thank you.

Welcome to Pond Boss. Not sure about your dam building knowledge or experience. To do it right, you will need to "knit" and mix the new loam with the existing top of the present dam. Get grass started ASAP. If not done properly, it leaves a seam that will leak every time and possibly cause a blow out of the new stuff and possibly more.

BTW, I'm not a dam builder; just a Pond Boss junkie who has heard about this before.

Pondfun, we have red clay, and I raised the emergency spillway 3' on a 1/4 acre pond. I just layered and packed it with my tractor, and it did peel when I added new layers. I'd "knit" it as DD1 suggested.

First, all vegetative material needs to be scraped off the surface down to bare soil.

I would take a backhoe, rear tractor blade, one bottom plow, or some other device to make a foot deep trench down the middle of the old dam going the length of the dam and a little ways past on each side as far as the new dam material will go. Make a keyway seal.

Then pack in a clay/soil mix suitable for dam material in 6" lifts.

Two things to consider (at the least, may be more). Making the dam higher will increase static pressure on the existing lower part of the dam. You may need to put material behind the dam to widen the entire dam base to handle this. Plus if you go up but not wider at the base, the dam will be steeper to mow than it was before. So that is another reason to widen the entire dam.

I'm no expert so disreguard all of the above. These are only ideas to help you think the process through. I have no idea if you can successfully raise your dam. Those are just the things I would be concerned with.

I raised a dam recently on my old pond. If I can find the pictures, will edit this post and link to them, so check back.
Here is the link. The post linked and below it talk about raising my old pond dam and level. Above that post is information about raising my main pond but it did not involve raising the dam.
snrub raising the dam higher in his old pond

Thanks for all the replies. The project would require me to also raise my drive way 2 feet as well. I will tey to add a picture so you can see what i am dealing with.
I will share the damn building method as well.

Did you have to dig out the side any? I was curious what the pond looks like after you raised it.

Very cool link

Here is a picture.

This what we did on one of the stock ponds to raise the dam height. Dirt contractor found good clay next to the pond and started evacuating it leaving 3'-4' divider next to the water. When he was through digging the trackhoe broke the divider which made the pond slightly larger.

That is one of the techniques I used when I renovated my daughters pond. Made part of the old pond bigger then added a complete new section in addition.

I finished up that project right before we left for our winter stomping grounds and I never got any of the completed pictures posted. The pond had not filled and I expected it to fill this winter some time with rain, but instead we have had a very dry winter. So I suspect the pond is no higher and possibly even lower than when I left. All my pictures are on my home computer but in a week or so will try to remember to update a thread with the photos of the finished project. And some after it fills. But none for now.

In the mean time, I remembered I raised the overflow part of the dam and expanded my forage pond which is 1/20th acre so closer to the size of your pond. The link below is to the part of the thread where the reconstruction starts. The whole thread shows the construction of the pond.

snrub's forage pond dam modification and raise water level

Thank you very much for all of the information. I will try to raise the damn 2 feet. My pond depth is about 5 feet.

Dont want to mess up a good thing as the pond is holding great.

Anybody know of a good pond builder in sumner co Tn near upper station?