I thought I would share my pond building experience with you all, I hope that someone finds it useful. While on vacation last summer, I was inspired by a VRBO rental cabin that we rented along a lake on the border of South Carolina and Georgia, this is where my dream of a large pond directly behind the back of my house began to take shape.
I bought 20 acres in southwest Missouri from my father to build my dream house and shop for my growing family. We planned to start building in the spring, so this gave me enough time to start on the pond. The property slopes about 15 feet from the house site to a 5 acre bottom land area next to a dry creek, Using Google Earth, I roughly calculated my watershed, talked to neighbors and a local pond builder to get advice on soil types, expected expenses and the probability that the pond would hold water. After digging some test holes and fixing up my fathers 1974 Cat D7 dozer, I decided to take the plunge and started removing topsoil at the end of December, 2018. I had fewer than 20 hours experience on a dozer of any kind, but I spent my evenings and weekends pushing as much dirt as I could throughout most of the spring. I endured several minor breakdowns on the dozer and a very wet spring that slowed me down considerably. My original intent was to remove the topsoil, then turn the project over to an expert to build the dam. Due to the rainy weather, my pond builder was booked a couple months out, so I kept pushing dirt. Once springtime rolled around, I had made enough progress and felt comfortable enough on the dozer to go ahead and build the dam myself.
The site had up to 3 feet of very dark topsoil. Even though I had dug test holes, I didn’t understand how much dirt I’d need to move. After the majority of the topsoil was stockpiled or spread out, I started at the shallow end of the pond and started building the dam. This section of the land contained very rocky soil mixed with red clay. I began to wonder if I’d hit the right type of clay to seal the pond. Eventually, I got into over an acre of solid, rock-free clay over 3 feet deep. This was a huge relief and gave me hope that I could make this project work. As I continued to build the dam, I encountered several seams of gravel, most likely from the dry creek shifting over the years. I dug out the seams and filled them with clay and hoped for the best.
I compacted the bottom of the pond with a smooth roller that weighs about 7k pounds, then I spread an average of probably 10 inches of the best clay I could find over the entire pond and inner banks and rolled it again several times. I debated using a sheepsfoot and decided that the blanket of clay I had was compacting well enough to avoid the expense.
At this point, I have completed the dam, the bottom, and have spread topsoil around edges. I am still working on the spillway and plan to build a dock before it fills. Since I closed the dam, we have received about 2 inches or rain over 30 days. I have about 8 inches of water in a small area of the deepest part of the pond, so it appears to be holding water. I’m keeping my fingers crossed and waiting for rain.
All told, I have about 150 hours in dozer time. It burns 8 gallons of diesel an hour, so I probably have $5k in fuel, oil and repairs. I hired a skid steer operator for about 40 hours at $60 an hour, so another $2500 there. It looks like the surface area will be between 2.5 and 3 acres at full pool. Deepest part is a little over 8 feet, most of it is 7 feet with the shallow end at 4 feet.
It’s been a fun project, very rewarding, but I’m glad to finally be off the dozer!. The forums and articles on this site have been invaluable to this process. I appreciate everyone’s willing share information. I couldn’t have done it without you.
I’ve attached several drone pictures below in chronological order. Check them out and let me know what you think. I’ll post more pictures as it fills if there is interest.
