Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Pond Expansion Questions

Howdy all. Long time viewer, first time poster.

I recently purchased a property that has a roughly 1/8 acre pond on it. I'd like to expand it to about twice its current size. I figure 1/4 acre will be a decent little fishing hole/stock tank.

Can I estimate costs by going off of initial dig costs? Of course I've seen numbers all across the board as far as pond digging rates, but I was just wondering if expansion costs are the same as digging from scratch.

Also, could anyone recommend any companies in the Northeast Texas area?

I know I just need to get a few people out to give me an estimate, but I wanted to educate myself a bit before doing so.

Thanks

There are a lot of guys on here from your area. One of them ought to be along pretty soon to give you an idea.

One thing that isn't always considered is the dam. If you deepen it, you may have to have some dam work done and just piling dirt on top and packing doesn't always work well.

Thanks Dave. Yeah, I'm assuming I'll need some dam work done, because the direction I want/need to expand it will be where the majority of the existing damn is now.

Might be trackhoe work, and hopefully won't impact dam.

Call Mike Otto - he's a gifted pond engineer and top notch guy and an owner of Pond Boss:

Otto's Dirt Service
1-800-882-DIRT (3478)
PO Box 2
Lindsay, TX 76250

email us:
mikeotto@ottosdirtservice.com

1/8 acre is small enough it should not be too bad to re-do even if you have to drain it with a pump and completely re-dig the whole thing. In fact that is likely what you will need to do.

If the current pond is still in decent shape AND you have enough property in a suitable location, it might be better to just leave the current pond as is and dig a separate new pond the size you want. It very likely will cost no more and maybe even less to dig a complete new pond than what it will cost to deal with the muck and mud cleaning out and expanding the old one. Then you would have two ponds, with two different management options, or a main pond and a forage pond.

Something to think about.

+1

@teehjaeh57, thanks I'll reach out to them. Looks like they're about 140 miles from me though, so not sure how that would impact a quote.

@snrub, I didn't think about that option, but I don't think I'd go the route of abandoning the existing pond. The current pond is in good shape (in my opinion), but again, I'm no expert. I only have 12 acres and it's pretty much setup already for a small farming operation, so there's not too much space to build another pond anywhere.

Pic below. The yellow line is where I would prefer it be extended, but that would involve completely removing the existing dam (black lines), so I'm not sure how feasible that is. The second option is the blue line, which I'm guessing would minimally impact the existing dam.

My point about the dam is that the soils need to be "knitted" together.

Sometimes it is easier[cost less money] to raise the spillway to get more water, that may not be possible but look at that first.

Edit7279
what site are you using to get an aerial view of your pond and how does one go about drawing on the picture as you have done?

I would like to do this for an area I am planning on constructing a pond

JDMahindra, I just took that screenshot from google maps and then pasted it in paint and scribbled those lines on there.

I actually found a site last night while browsing the forums called farmlogs.com It's great! You can map out areas on your property and it gives you acreage and rain totals, and soil type and crop conditions, etc. Super handy.

I should add, if you don't know, you can take a screenshot by pressing Ctrl and PrtScr. That copies the screen. Then just open Paint and paste. Shortcut to paste is Ctrl V

Great
Thank you Edit7279

edit7279 - Thanks for the link to FarmLogs.com. Cool site.