Hi White Oak, welcome to the Pond Boss Forum. I volunteer for multiple organizations as I possess rather specialized knowledge: Pond Construction, rehab, and leak abatement. Contractor, site, and equipment selection at this stage of your project is absolutely critical to get right so you can avoid a call to me in a couple of years dealing with leaks. I’m happy to chat and review your situation and provide my insights to help you moving forward. As a volunteer moderator my time is always free to the folks in this great community.
A scraper can be used with a degree of effectiveness however it’s largely dependent on the plasticity index of our parent material. I’ve seen many ponds built which are relatively leak free dealing with excellent parent material with nothing more than a dozer and excavator. I do not recommend this method just mentioning it’s a very common practice and can work. A pad foot or sheep’s foot roller was designed for a singular purpose: to compact material. I always recommend using compaction equipment, even if a contractor has to rent it. The PSI generated by rollers exceeds that of tracked equipment or rubber wheeled equipment exponentially.
Lots more to review here, including your watershed and annual rainfall, plasticity of your native material, credentials of your contractor, etc. Feel free to reach out and we could schedule a call-I’m happy to help however I can.
tj@hudlandmgmt.com
| 
