Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Property Projects & Construction making pond deeper anything that I should know

As alot of you know my pond is only 4 feet deep and leaks really badly since I dug the pond by hand and can not afford a liner.

This is the first summer I have had my pond and it dropped about 1.5 ft making it harder to keep cool. So I took the top of the dam off until I got to the point where it was leaking Now I intend on making the pond 6 feet deep and taking the dirt that I dig out of the middle and throwing it in the shallow spots in the pond witch are currently 6 inches to 1 foot deep. that should give me less surface area keeping the pond cooler.

I'm worried that when I dig the pond deeper I create another leak at the bottom witch would completely screw me. Is their any chance that happens? Also I was not a Pond Boss member when I dug the pond So any advice I get on digging and designing the newly renovated pond is appreciated.

Thankyou!!!

The earth material in our area varies greatly over very small areas.

I'm guessing you have mostly clay, but you could easily have a vein of gravel or sand coursing through it. Especially, since you are feeding it with a spring. You could have even hit a spring when you were initially hand digging.

Are you digging the remainder out by hand? If so, that could be somewhat of a problem. But, if you have a backhoe or small excavator, the clay that is pulled out could be used to help seal any sand or gravel veins.

On my land, I've got areas where a hole can be dug in totally impervious clay. It doesn't have to be compacted. Water only gets out by evaporation. But, less than a hundred feet away, I can dig another hole, where I hit shale and gravel that absolutely won't hold water in even the heaviest rains. My current burn pit is about 100 feet from my larger pond. The pond doesn't leak. The burn pit, which is about 8-feet deep, can get as much as 4-5 feet of water in it during a big storm. When it quits raining, it will have no water in it four hours later.

Take earth samples everyplace you plan to dig. Compress them in your fist to squeeze out as much water as your can. If the sample holds together, the soil will probably hold water. If it crumbles or falls apart, it will have to be dug out, or covered with impervious clay.

Good luck,
Ken

Thankyou Ken!

I will be deepening the pond with a pick and shovel exsactly how I dug it in the first place. The soil in the area of the pond is full of good clay with some large rocks.

Good luck with the project. Post a few dirt pics as that may help. Compaction is important even if hand dug. Often raising the dam height is a better option than digging the bottom.