OK, I'm new to posting here. Its been lots of fun cruizing around these forums picking up lots of great info while planning my pond project, but now that I'm in a position to get started with it, I have questions. And from what I've found, this is the place to ask them.
I've shown my site to a contractor that I know thru work. I've seen plenty of his work and its always very good. From talking to him, it is apparent that he has done lots of ponds. My pond won't be very big... 1/2 to 3/4 acres but thats with a 15 foot dam height. The contractor is proposing a 15" drop inlet pipe feeding a 12" pipe through the dam. He says I can expect that to run me about 5 grand. I'm blown away.
So I spoke to an engineer friend who's designed lots of ponds. He says unless the pond is for stormwater management, there is no need for anything but a 4 or 6" pipe. Let the trickle pipe handle the daily stuff and let the spillway take care of any large storms.
Does that sound reasonable? Somewhere during the last few years planning this project I've become paranoid about the idea of having to depend on the spillway for anything except for the largest of storms. How often should the auxiliary spillway be needed? Or if it is constructed properly, does it really matter?
