Okay, the house construction is almost done at the pond and we have come up with a situation that I need advice on.

We have a sub pump that runs hourly and we need it to drain to the pond. we don't want it on the surface for fear that it will freeze and back up in the winter. The thought we had was to run it underground below the frost line and have it go through the side of the pond so that it pumps under the ice and frost. When it comes out of the house it will be at grade, and then drop under ground. The pond level is about half way up my basement wall, so there is not a big drop from the house to the pond.

The questions are: 1) does this make sense? 2) how do you dig a trench for a pipe and breech a pond wall in a pond that I cannot lower without the trench flooding? If you look at the picture below, the location is in the bottom left corner of the house to the pond.

I'd dig a trench to the pond, but stop it short. Get the fall correct in the trench from the house to the pond, as close as you dare go without breaking thru.

I'd go so far as to get the fall figured out for the first 10' from the house, and cut/glue the pipe together from the pump to 10' out from the house, or as far as you dare work from the house. Fill in as much of the trench as you can and still keep the pipe at the correct fall. Cut/glue the rest of the pipe together and keep as much as possible out of the trench. Continue with the trench to the pond, finishing as much of the trench as possible, lay the pipe, backfilling as you go. Breach to the pond, slap the pipe in the trench that is now filled with water and backfill.

Suggestion #2.

Get an anti-seep collar. Place a bulkhead fitting thru it, and on the pond side connect a one way valve to the bulkhead fitting. Add enough pipe to keep the anti-seep collar a distance from the pond. Figure out what fall you need at the pipe going thru the anti-seep collar. Cap the house side of the bulkhead fitting. Dig the anti-seep collar into the ground, placing the pipe at the proper level below grade for the correct fall. Yeah, it'll be wet and messy. Backfill and compact to the pond. Now dig on the house side of the anti-seep collar, continuing to the house. Run pipe from sump pump to anti-seep collar. This side of the anti-seep collar should be dry. Remove cap, connect to pipe from house.

I recommend breaching the pond wall with C4. Not real clean but real fast! jk

Can you put a trash pump into the pond to drop the water level below the level that you need to penetrate or do you not want to lower the level?

I have no place to pump the water from the pond. My neighbor down hill has tried to stop our project three different times and tried to get the county to force us to fill in the pond because she claimed it was hurting her trees (a long and crazy story). We are above full pool right now before the spring rains. If this was last winter, my pond would be 2 feet lower and this would have been easy. With a sub pump running a decent amount of water every hour, is there really freeze issues if a had a decent drop and then ran a stone stream to the pond. My contractor wants this below the freeze line, but a surface stream seems like it would work to me.

Scott, as always, you are a fount of great information. Thanks.
Mike, if I used the C4 on the neighbor, then it would be really fast!

Brian, how far does the water have to run from the house to the pond?

I'm guessing that it's about 5-10 gallons per pumping session?

Scott, here are some side pictures of the house and were we are going.

The pipe will come out of the house in the dark corner and run along the house until it gets to the corner to the right.


After it clears the corner, it will run to the pond and end somewhere near the rock. As you can see, there is not much drop from the house to the pond at that point. The ground will be built up a little bit, but only a few feet


The total run from the corner of the house to the pond is about 30-40 feet, depending on the angle we take

Mine goes out the side of my basement wall, ties into my gutter tile, drains about a foot short of the pond.make sure you have fall the whole run, mine is in 4" drain tile. Simple as that.. Never a single problem..

Do you ever have problems with freezing or build-up? I agree and don't think it should be a problem, but my contractor is worried.

Brian, another thought.

At Mom & Dad's house they have a gutter drain that goes underground from the outside wall of the house for about 100'. It isn't very deep due to the ground sloping away from the house. We put an outside waterproof electric box next to it, with a GFI. We then fished one of those roof/gutter heaters thru it, and have it switched with a lighted indicator switch from inside the house. If they see ice building up (it drops from the downspout to a catch basin right there at the house, then continues) the plan is to turn on the heater. In the past 2 years they haven't had to do that. Their sump pump also dumps into that catch basin, then goes to the drain pipe. While theirs doesn't run as frequently as yours, it's been running a lot this winter. We didn't bury that drain pipe below the frost line. It's a 4" corregated black drain pipe, and it terminates in a pop-up surface diffuser once it gets to the bottom of the hill. The cable runs to the 90° fitting that is at the end of the pipe. The end of the drain is only 6"-8" below grade.

Thanks for all of the input. I am meeting with the contractor today to discuss options. I am leaning away from digging the side of the pond. I would be concerned that we would get some (read lots) of dirt in the pond.