Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Renovating a Pond or Lake? Rebuilding dam cost

We bought a property last year with pond that is about 1.5 acres. The dam had a bunch of trees on it and a leak that was high on the dam. We got an estimate to remove the trees and repair the leak. When they started digging into the dam, they found a much bigger leak lower in the dam, approximately 10 feet down. This leak was caused by an old overflow pipe that was filled with cement that subsequently rusted (I'm assuming to fix a previous leak in the same area).

I've had the soil conservation people over and they're saying build a whole new dam. Anyone else run into an issue with a large leak? The dam is very old, I'd say 40-50 years old and doesn't appear to be built with lots of clay, more soil. I have an estimate to fix the dam (30K), and an estimate to rebuild the entire dam (70-100k). How much would it cost approximately to build a 75 yard long dam, about 15 feet deep? Cost of the machinery per day? Cost of clay per cubic yard? I understand that these prices vary regionally, but I'm really looking for a rough estimate. We live in KY. We don't have the money to build the entire dam back based on the prices we were quoted, so I'm looking to see if people think it's a necessity or not to tear down the entire dam, and build a new one. He is quoting about 10k per week to run the equipment and saying it will take 1 month to pull down the dam and build new one, plus the cost of bringing in clay.

Hello, and welcome to Pond Boss.

I'm afraid it's just about impossible to answer your questions for the reasons you site, but a little more info might help...

Can you send some pics of the pond, the dam, and the leaks?

How much water were you losing from each leak?

Does the pond stay full year round [to the best of your short experience]?

Prices seem on the high side.....you can get a lot of work done for $30K, but again, without knowing more about the site and scope of work, it's hard to say whether that's reasonable or not.

Hi Erin, welcome to the forum!

I just got done watching/supervising a 1 acre pond built for a friend, with a 300' dam complete with core trench, and it took 5 days and cost $7,500.00. Yes, seven thousand five hundred. Honestly, your quote for a pond roughly the same size seems exponentially inflated.

Doesn't Michael Grey work in Tennessee? He's a pond boss supporter, passionate and highly skilled pond artist, and a super cool cat. I'd reach out and run this by him...maybe he's close enough to take a look and at least GC the project. I'd feel very secure with him or Mike Otto overseeing any pond project of mine.

mgrayconstruction@yahoo.com

http://www.grayconstruction.net

Thanks for the replies! You all are very helpful! The link and contacts are great, we'll be contacting them tomorrow.


How much water were you losing from each leak? I'm not really sure, it was a constant trickle. But we never saw any water down lower, just from this leak higher. Then when he dug into the dam, he said there was a lot of water sitting in the dam by this pipe.

Does the pond stay full year round [to the best of your short experience]? I've heard it gets lower, but last summer it stayed pretty full, but it was a pretty wet summer for us.

Here's a link to photos on photobucket
http://s791.photobucket.com/user/eobrien01/library/Pond%20reno

First off, I'm not a professional, so none of what I give is advice but instead thoughts to get your creative juices flowing that might help you come up with an alternative solution.

I do own a dozer and scraper and have built and rebuilt a few ponds. But it is farmer experience, not professional construction experience.

First off, I see rocks in the dam. Not a good sign.

I also see what looks like a pretty good size property, with some room to work.

I don't know what is below the dam or what type of soil would be there, but if it were mine I would be looking into making another new dug pond immediately below the current pond, if you own that land and it is available. If there is some clay that can be used from a dug excavation, create a completely new dam on the back side of the old dam. The old dam could be additional structural strength but the new dam could be made with a nice, wide, mow-able slope. Draining the pond, dealing with the muck, and replacing the dam is going to involve a lot of work. If the soil is available below the current dam, why not just make a new dam behind the old one and have a really nice wide dam. Get rid of the old overflow pipe and either put a new one in through both the old and new part, or just make a simple spillway at one end of the dam and forget the pipe.

Or go down the slope a ways and create a new dam that backs up water against the old dam. Then it will not matter if the old dam leaks (because there will be water on both sides of the old dam). If you have the property. Building new may be a lot more cost effective than repairing old. Just let the old become part of the new. Two ponds, one new, one old, with a road (old dam) running through the middle.

A hundred grand will buy a lot of fish at Long John Silvers. No way would I shell out that kind of money for an acre and a half pond but that is just me. You may have been talking to a contractor that is used to bidding government projects. I know a contractor that bids government and they are in a whole separate world.

These are only ideas you may not have considered. They may not be applicable at all in your situation.

Rub has good points here and has worked on more projects than most of us here on the forum - and actually WORKED in the dirt - so I'd value that input.

I maintain the proposal on these projects seem exponentially inflated. Unless clay is 100 miles away, just doesn't make sense to me. You may be better off using a liner based on these projected costs.

I mostly try to bring up alternative thinking. Just possibilities the owner might never have thought of. Most of the time my ideas probably are not even applicable. But my hair brain idea might spark another idea from the owner or someone else that actually is workable.

Sometimes we get into tunnel thinking as in "we need to re-do this pond" (voice of experience talking this time), to the point that maybe we miss doing something completely different that might cost less and end up better. Like leaving the old pond as-is and building a completely new additional pond at a lower total cost.

I do have some experience at cleaning out old ponds, and I can tell you that building new is a lot more fun.

Just trying to induce alternative thinking ideas.