Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Building a dam Ravine Dam Lake Construction Central Illinois

Please save yourself a lot of cost and a whole lot of 'WishIWuddas..' and get a consultation and a site visit by a reputable pond builder. Not a dirt mover, a pond builder. A 25 foot dam has unique challenges in its design and construction and I would never ever want you to have this be your first experience with building a pond with a dam. You didn't mention how comfortable you are in building ponds or dams.

This forum is riddled with folks who paid dirt movers who have found just about every way possible to be sure that the pond looked good long enough for them to cash the check and leave the site only to have the pond be a 'leaker' forever afterwards. Fixing it later is WAY more expensive then doing it right the first time. So many people were assured that there was plenty of 'good clay' on site only to find that there are a lot of kinds of clay and it is the way the clay is applied that matters the most. Even one small vein of stone or gravel is all it takes. You need a lot of planning, prep work, test holes, watershed calculations, plans for overflow, siphons, etc etc.

There are too many people aching about how things ended up after hours of work and lots of money and I hate to see you end up in their ranks and with a much larger scale project that didn't turn out as you had envisioned.

But, the good news is welcome to a great forum filled with helpful resources and good people. One of the IL pondmeisters can share with you their experience and also can recommend reputable and SUCCESSFUL pond builders in your area.