Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Soil questions First test hole... Give me opinions...

Well guys, I have been reading on here for a month or two and decided to go dig a test hole about where the middle of my pond would be. I know clay is what I need to hit in a perfect scenario, but I dont really know what clay looks like. I have also people talk about sandy clay and I get the idea thats not good. If I had to make a decision myself I would say what I have is clay, but I need your help. Can you guys look at the pics I took of the soil and give me an idea what I am working with?

First pic is a shot of the side of the excavation.


Second pic, shot of the end of the hole, the wall the teeth of the bucket was digging against


Third pic is a shot of the dirt pile removed from hole



And the last pic is a shot of some of the dirt on the pile that I lightly compacted with my shoe.

I'm not a dirt expert by any means, but I'm going to say you've got what looks to be good clay there.

To be sure, either search for "bucket test" on the forum, or take a 5 gal bucket. Drill a bunch of holes in the bottom, of varying size, 1/8" to 3/8". Take about 4"-6" of your dirt and pack it in the bottom of the bucket. Set it on a couple of bricks or something else to get it up off of the ground a bit and fill'er up with water. check in 24 hrs and see how much leaked out.

Or wad up some wet stuff and let the Kids throw it against the side of a pickup. It ought to stick.

That is good dirt by what I can see. The bucket test is fail safe as long as you are planning to rent a sheepsfoot roller or vibratory compactor. Now, if you are going to doze it in and wait for it to fill, that test is less indicitive of accurate results. Without compaction, you should pick up a natural clump of clay about the size of a soft ball, then drop it into a pail of water. If you wait a few days and the clump is mostly intact, you are in good shape. If it disintegrated and is no longer the basic shape you could have a problem. It should be almost the original size. Bad or sandy clay will fall apart into various sized clumps, nothing like the original size. But from what I see, your soil looks good.

Little update guys... It rained the day after I dug the hole and it filled COMPLETELY up with water. The water level has not dropped at all since it initially filled up... Im hopeful that my biggest problem will be keeping it dry enough to dig.