Hi all,

New to the site and have been lurking around lately. Found this site when searching about information on building a pond. Hopefully construction will start soon this Spring. Getting estimates currently on the project now. Pic of topography if I uploaded this correctly. Currently Blue and Red areas are potential sites.

Welcome to the forum.

Looks like lots of flexibility available.

Approximately what size will it be?

Thanks John, Yeah the lay of the land offers us a lot. This property is in Boone County, Mo. We just recently purchased it and are planning on moving back to the Midwest to be closer to family and our son. So basically starting with a pond build, then followed up by a outbuilding, then a house build next year. I want to make sure we do this right since as I am sure many on this forum can tell me I have one shot. I had the DNR guys go to the site and check out where I thought would be a good spot and they marked on a Topo where they thought two locations would be good or combine some or both. The blue area is about 1 to 1/2 acres. The red area is about 3 to 3.5 acres. I am hoping to here from many of you in the area. For those near Boone County, any other Excavation contractors they may have used along with contractors for outbuilding etc. Currently I am trying to handle things from NC with travel back and forth when needed to MO to meet onsite. This should be an exciting year for us to get things moving. Hopefully I will get some feed back and suggestions from others have already gone through what I am about to.

Thanks

Bill

Bill, if it were me, and it’s not, I would wait on the pond until I was there full time. Ask a lot of questions. There are a lot of dozer drivers but dang few good pond builders.

Thanks Dave, yeah understand but really need to go this route since I want to build a house based on where my pond ends up being and get a head start. I am currently retired so I can spend as much time as needed in the area. I am in the process of starting to talk with excavators now and working on setting up meetings with the ones I have talked to already that I feel have experience in building ponds. I am hoping from this site I may get a few others that currently live in the Central Missouri area give me some additional leads. Word of mouth is really the best way to find someone plus following up on references. I am already finding out how tough it is to find a qualified pond builder. The DNR gave me a list to start with, but I plan on talking with some of the homeowners in the area also to see who they used and any issues they may have had. There are a lot of ponds in the area and I can tell some are new from the GIS and Google earth. Seems slow on this site currently. Not sure how many visit the forum that much since I am new to it. I thought it would be a good place to start to get some feedback and advice. I have learned one important thing in life. There are a lot of knowledgeable people out there and listening does not cost you a thing. You never know what extra crumb of information can make a big difference. Also trying to research and read as much information I can. This has been in our plan for more than 25 years. Finding the perfect property of course was the first. We have looked at a lot of properties and this one seemed to fit everything we were looking for. I plan on being there as much as I can once the pond build starts.

Bill

Bill, on some of that research I would buy Mike Otto's book Just Add Water. I wish something like this had been available when I did mine.

When interviewing, ask about and insist on a core trench. If they don't know about it or say it isn't needed, pass and go to the next one.

Welcome to the Pond boss forum Bill.
I agree the when construction starts it will be better to be there to oversee cause questions always come up along with new ideas or problems. Also talking to locals who have had ponds built is a good way to find out who to use or not use. Good Luck with your build and you are in the right spot to find out answers to your questions.

Welcome from Pettis County Mo! There are a small hand full of us here on the forums from the I-70 corridor and hopefully one can recommend a pond builder in the area for you to check out. My pond renovation was just done by a dirt guy, turned out very well and was affordable. So, if you need some generic dirt work done just PM me and I will get you a number.

Dave,

That's just one of my main questions. In fact when I discuss pond builds with a contractor I kind of let them tell me their experience and see if they even mention Core Trench or Key Way before I bring it up. If I do have to bring it up then it becomes an immediate red flag. I take it a step further and have no problem asking about how many pond failures or leaking dams they have built in their career. It is pretty much a given if they have been in this business for a long time that they have had one or both at some point in a build. I am not looking for someone who just pushes dirt around. I am looking for someone who can create a plan based on my wants and desires! There is so much more to this than digging a hole in the ground or damming up a ravine. I have done detail analysis and project planning all my career
so I am very detail oriented. I have a list questions and concerns in front of me during my initial conversation. Once I find someone that I think is a possibility then the next step will be to meet them at the property and go into more detail of want I am trying to build. If they want to visit the property prior to me meeting them to get a idea on what they will be working with I am find with that and I have had a few that have.
I have tried to read as much as I can on this site and others and going back to the archives on this site. There are some interesting stories and builds. Some good and some not so good. As far as Mike Otto's book, I cam close to buying it but could not get enough information on whether it was more about buying the correct property or pond locations etc. or what. I really would like to know the chapter contents in it. I have read the several documents that the government has put out about pond building. I have purchased a few back issues of Pond Boss magazine and Ray Scotts DVD. I am in no big hurry to start the build and if it takes 2 months or 5 months to start because of finding the right builder then I can live with that. Sooner would be better because of the weather but it is not a deal breaker.
Thanks so much for your feedback. Let me know if there is a link that provides more information on what Mike's book contains.
Same for structure once a pond is being built. I read some articles that say stay away from adding organic structure such as stumps and trees etc.. to only using artificial or structure such as rocks and concrete that do not break down in time. I have always fished ponds with lots of organic structure but never gave it a thought on how it can impact the pond life.
Some of my best fishing as a kid was a couple of old cattle ponds which were always muddy but we caught a ton of LMB and catfish in them. I can guarantee back then no farmer even gave it a second thought to do anything with the pond other than to keep water in them.

Thanks

Bill

First 7 chapters deal with planning.
Part I
1. Planning
2. Soil
3 Understanding your water supply
4. Dams
5. Emergency spillways and primary spillways
6. Shorelines and Surrounding Areas
7. Specialty Ponds.


Part II
1. Dam Maintenance and Repair
2. Erosion repair on dams front slope
3. repairing Pipes
4. Sealing Leaky Ponds
5. Renovations during drought
6. Permits
7. How and where to find help
8 Glossary
9. Table of conversion units
10. and 11. Other stuff

$29.95 from Pond Boss Book Store about 200 pages

Well worth it

Welcome to the forum soon-to-be neighbor.

The Extension dept at MU has a mountain of publications regarding ponds and aquaculture. It's possible they may be able to assist in finding qualified excavators to build your pond.

https://extension2.missouri.edu/catalogsearch/result/?q=pond

I don't know how much luck you'll have finding someone in this area who just builds ponds, but there are literally thousands of ponds in Boone County so it shouldn't be terribly difficult to find a dirt guy who knows what he's doing.

I can give you a couple names. Shoot me a PM if that interests you.


Greg

Thanks so much Dave. I plan on ordering it since I know what it covers. So things I already know from the research and talking with the Missouri DNR folks, but looks like it has some other great information.

Bill

Greg,

Thanks for the link and welcome! Maybe some day in the future we will meet up. Anxious to move back to the Midwest and especially Missouri. PM on its way!

Welcome to the forum, I actually am an excavator here in Boone county but do mostly residential construction, have done several small ponds including a few NRCS ponds here in Boone County, but I have track-loaders and track-hoes, not really what you need for moving a lot of dirt a long distance as needed for larger ponds, that being said I know pretty much every excavator in this area, I actually have one of them assisting me with a 16 17 acre lake at this very moment, still lack a couple days being completed, I did my own core on this one but most of the ones that I know would not consider doing one without being cored out to good sealing clay, I am a member of the Missouri Land Improvement Contractors Association, or MLICA, which is the local chapter of A National Association of Land Improvement Contractors, I would be more then happy to get you a list of Excavating Contractors, some of which the majority of their work is pond building and land terracing. also the local NRCS office will be glad to get you a list of names that build ponds for them, obviously to their sringent specs, with completely satisfactory results, (they wont be on their approved list very long if they don't do a good job).

Now when you get ready to build your house I may be able to help you on that, it's what I do, including onsite sewer systems, water and sewer lines. Good Luck and let me know if you have any questions I can answer!

You would not happen to be Jake Gingerich? Jake send me a list if you have some names in PM if you would. I will definitely keep you in mind for the excavation for building a house and septic work. I hope to put a septic in later this year.

Yes that's me, I was kinda surprised when I pulled up the sites you were looking at for the pond and it came up the Boone County assessor's website, I went back and looked and it said you were from North Carolina. I will PM you some contacts that I would stand behind their work anyday, tons of experience.

MWB, Welcome from another Pettis Co MO Pondbosser. The Missourians might overtake the Texans if we keep it up!

Good luck with your pond and move to Missouri. I have relatives in VA that are planning a move to MO as well.

Yup, can't wait to move. Heading to Missouri in April to meet 3 contractors for a couple of days. Hopefully your snow is done by then. DNR gave me your name as not being on the excavation contractors list for possibly building a pond and stated you have done a couple of small projects for them.

Bill

Thanks for the Welcome CMM!

MWB, welcome to the forum. My place isn’t along I-70, but I did spend four years in Columbia back in the 70s. So I’m attached to Boone County.
Lots of great info and contacts on this forum.
I went through a pond build four and a half years ago. Mine was a stressful build, because I had crappy clay and too much rock. Went over budget, almost shut it down before it was completed.
Result is hours and hours of fun. Grandkids love it, and even grandma will jump in when the weather is hot enough.
Good luck with your build. I’ll follow along with interest.
Jeff

Welcome to the forum MWB ,from another Missourian.I really like the Boone County area. I'm looking forward to keeping up with your build. One thing you might want to look into doing is adding a sediment pond, that can double as a forage pond. I have a very small sediment pond, but wish I would of put more thought into it as a forage pond, and will probably rework it someday.

Post lots of pictures when you get started!

Thanks for the Welcome Jeff. I see you are about an hour east of my property. I read your pond build with great interest since yours is kind of close to what I am doing. Hopefully yours is not leaking to much and keeping up with the rain. Where did you find your pond builder? Was he local to your area? Nice looking pond by the way!!

Thanks

Bill

Thanks Bob for the welcome. I have discussed with some of the contractors about adding a sediment pond. I think once I meet them on site we can iron out the details more and what exactly I am looking for besides an outline on a topo map. I will definitely keep you all posted. I also will be doing some drone footage of my project since I have done some video footage for others. Here are a few links: The first one is a dog trainer friend of mine training grounds. Second one is a friend of mine who own a hunting preserve and I shot a video for a European Tower Shoot

https://youtu.be/C3vgN-ucupY

https://youtu.be/PLACub_ib10


Thanks

Bill

Bill, those are cool videos and very smooth. It will be really great to see some of your build.

Thanks Bob,

Easy to do when you can preprogram the whole flight so you are not messing with the camera angle and direction and speed and altitude of the Drone. You can plot your course out in google earth with camera direction etc then upload and fine tune on site. You just have to make sure the altitude is high enough with the older drones since they do not have collision avoidance on them like the newer ones today.

That is accurate, I have done some small projects for them but pretty much withdrew from their list for larger ponds and projects, dont have the proper equipment for moving large amounts of dirt over long distances, really need scrapers for that, usually not able to get competitive on the prices of somebody with scrapers, they can move dirt so much more efficiently.

Bill, my situation was sort of tricky. I have a neighbor that owns a big dozer. He’s built ponds all over Ralls Co, and even helped build Mark Twain Lake. I’m well aware that a good dozer operator does not equal a good pond builder. But for peace in the neighborhood and being one of only two absentee landowners around, I went with him. He had help from two brothers that also build ponds as a side line, but also sell timber. They cut all the trees, and arranged for the timber to be sold. That’s another can of worms. I was there almost every day, and I think I came out alright. Our share of the timber sales was $6,000 I think, which went a long way towards construction costs. I don’t think my leak is too bad. 1/4” a day, and evaporation is probably most of that. The agent from the USDA/Missouri Conservation office helped pick the spot, test the clay, measure the runoff, and make recommendations on emergency spillway pipe. Part of my leak may be coming from around the pipe, I am not sure. If we can stay out of a drought I’ll be fine. Like I said, I almost stopped the build. One of the pond building brothers told me, if it was his pond, he’d stop. We were too far along, and there wasn’t a good second choice, so I elected to finish. Really glad we did. Just wish I could spend more time there. Retiring in August, so getting a little more time for the pond should be doable.
Post some pics of your place and project. Looking forward to watching it happen.
Jeff

Jeff, yeah I wondered if my Timber is worth anything. I hate to just bulldoze it up and burn it. Not sure its worth trying to find someone or not. Something is better than nothing if its going up in smoke!!

Can’t hurt to find out. Prices were up when I built 4.5 years ago. I doubt they’ve come down.

Just an update on my pond build! Just wanted to let you all know I have not gone away. Met with 3 contractors and all three are very knowledgeable and have built a lot of ponds between them. All three on time and very professional! It was great meeting all of them on the property during the last few days and walking around the possible pond site and discussing the build and design. Next step is to have the site shot to get a better understanding of how many yards of dirt will need to be pushed and trees to remove. Once the pond site is shot and we come up with a plan, the contractors will be able to submit their bids based on each having he same plan. In the mean time I will start checking references. Currently I think its going to be a difficult decision once the bids are in and if they are not to far off from each other. I could not be happier with my choices for possible contractors. They each bring something unique to the table for the build. More updates to come as the process continues.

Welcome to the PB site and to Missouri, I have learned very much on pond build from this site. I have been working on a pond for more years than I care to mention, but I am building it myself with the help and knowledge of the site, I did get it cleared, keyway and dam, but being a PM for a construction company I have traveled most of the year for the last 10 years. Only been able to work on it a few days a year. In February of 2018 in a weekend of rain It was full, note I was not finished building yet, sooo I have a problem trying to finish it as it is still full ( it did go down about 3/4 of the way last summer but has since filled up again. enough said, good luck. It really is labor of love.

Good luck to both of you guys. MWB, it sounds like you’ve got three good builders to work with. I’m trying to remember, did you get the guys from the Dept of Conservation to come out? They laid out my drainage area on their maps, evaluated clay content and made recommendations. Gave me 80%+ chance of success. His major concern was my drainage area. Just 10 ac for a 1 ac pond. He thought the clay was great. It turned out to be the opposite. I have enough drainage, but not too much that’s for sure. But we did not find as good a clay as we had originally projected. He also designed the emergency overflow. More than adequate.

Jeff, yes they did come out and shoot the property to determine the size of dam, pipe, and number of yards of dirt that will need to be moved. Waiting on bids now. Looking at close to a 3 acre pond. I could go much bigger but that means more timber to remove etc. Plus I am sure it would blow the budget!

Well as I stated in prior updates. This is going to be a tough decision on which contractor to use. I have 2 bids in so far and there is only 441.00 difference in the bids! I would never have thought it would be that close but it just proves if you do as much up front planning as possible it can help tremendously. I think having the NCRS come out and shoot the property and write up a plan that calculates pipe size, dam length and yards of dirt needing moved etc. helped a lot. It will be curious to see what the 3rd bid comes in at.

Hi all, I am still around. It has been a busy summer getting things lined up but the construction has begun on the pond and land clearing. I will start posting as I get things edited. I will have still pics, ground video and drone video of the progress. To wet the taste buds day one the equipment arrives. Hopefully you will all enjoy the journey with me as I am enjoying watching it progress along with some additional land clearing which I will include.

what size have you planned, the smaller or the larger one? OOPs, sorry I went back and looked lol

Who did you wind up hiring to do the work?

CL Richardson out of Ashland

Short Video of area before Pond build and Land Clearing

https://youtu.be/A_5POkS8WAA

Hi all, so here is Day 1 of the Pond Build and Land Clearing for house and for view of the Pond. They did not start until after lunch do to doing all the maintenance on their machines coming off a previous job. So they worked about 3 hours and surprisingly knocked down a lot of trees in a short time. In one of my previous post I had a still shot showing the entrance deep into the woods. Please like and Subscribe so you will keep up on my Video submissions. I will post Day 2 as soon as I can.

Thanks and I hope you enjoy as much as I am enjoying watching the build live.

https://youtu.be/r-84kR9cojg

I don't recall that we've ever hired him to do any work, but he has a very good reputation in the area.

I expect you'll be quite pleased with the results.

I'm along for the ride. Wish I had a video of my 1st go around on mine.

Greg, so far I could not be more pleased with the pond build and land clearing. He has some great guys that have been with him 15 or more years doing the work. They definitely know what they are doing and have built a many of ponds around the Columbia area. As I stated previously in postings, I checked references for all contractors being considered.

Here are some Drone shots of Day 2 build of our pond in Missouri.

https://youtu.be/quHekc9gN80

Some video shots from Day3 Pond Build.

https://youtu.be/1JR2ANP4H7s

Land Clearing, Old pond cleanup, and New Pond Completion

https://youtu.be/bPhwNZqRIgo

Looks nice. It will set in to raining here soon. With adequate watershed your pond will be full to the brim come springtime.

Thanks, heading up next weekend for a few days. Hopefully we can at least get the piers in for a dock. Won't know until I see how deep it is now.

That looks awesome, they do great work, second if not third generation of dirt work here in central MO. how much area are you going to have covered in water?

Jake,

Not sure exactly. NRCS shot it around 2 1/2 to 3 acres when they first went out. My guess not bigger than that. Lots of trees were cleared out so when we build a house next year we can see from the house. So it appears bigger. Of course Dave said they can raise the Dam if I want more water! He was great to work with!

Well, we were able to get some of the piers in this weekend. We got all the ones closest to the water line and where the T section is. Still need to add some post for the dock leading to the T section. Hopefully in 4 weeks water will not be to high to complete. Lucky for us the day before we were digging holes in the mud, but still out of the water, however when we went back on Sunday to remove some bracing, water was already covering the furthest piers with water. Must have had quite of bit a rain Saturday night. Pond is looking good so far. As I probably stated before, no shortage of clay when building this pond. Post holes were very tough digging!!

Looking good

Nothing like racing the rising water to motivate a person! It looks like it's going to be a very cool pond.

Looks like it's going to be a great place!

We have forage!! Well the water depth was enough to add forage to the pond this past week. Next Fall will be the Bass. By then the pond should have a good kick start.

https://youtu.be/oO3fA1VyOTA

Well I have not given any updates lately. Here is a picture of the pond as of the end of February. The Pond is at full capacity. Didn't take long and its looking great. This fall we will stock the predator fish.

Looking good, MWB!

Nice

Been curious, thought about dropping by and checking on the status of your pond, looking great! we have definitely had a ton of precipitation this past winter and still getting it, pretty hard thunderstorm this morning.
My pond has been running over a good bit lately but I've also had the drain running out of the bottom pretty steady the last couple weeks, I don't have the siphon system like yours so when it comes up and goes out the overflow pipe it sorta skims the minnows right off the top, I didn't think that one through too well.