I had my pond dug two years ago now, and it is still leaking about 1/2 inch a day. It is obvious much of the leaking is through the dam. Is it unreasonable to ask the builder to fix the leaks by creating and compacting a core on the backside of the dam on his dime? Should I offer something? If so what should I offer, the whole amount?

I need this fixed for my mental health, and it becomes an eyesore like this.

As I'm sure you know I had the same problem. My guy charged me over $2000 to bring in new clay and line the dam. I was not happy.

The worst he can do is say "no", the only way to find out would be to ask. I would be diplomatic about it, even if he ultimately says "no" to doing the repair on his dime he might be willing to do something for you at a very reduced rate or even split his actual cost for doing the repair work.

Before you ask, did you have any type of contract that spelled out fixes if the pond leaked once it was built?

No contract, just a handshake. Other friends that had work done by him claimed he makes good on his work. It is just that last year when I tried this, no response from him. I decided to give it a rest and see if the dam settled in, or the leak slowed, but no luck. I am going to try again, and see what he suggests. Perhaps have him come out for an estimate on effort.

I really want this to work out at the end so I don't stress every time the rain misses us. Also right now the property value suffers for the big dirt ring around the pond.

Wow. My story exactly the same.

I believe their was an article on this in the last pond boss magazine.

Met with the dirt guy today, he suggested the same stuff I wanted. He even has a source of clay for free left over from a previous job! Look like he is good for his word. Lets hope this fixes it.

Good news!

Yes there was !

Good luck with the dam, hope all goes well...

Thanks all! I hate to admit it, but last month's issue went into the ether of a messy house. Don't ask and I wont have to lie.

Hey, Squid, just curious to hear some follow up on this issue. Did the work get done and, if so, how is the dam holding up now?

The work was done, and it was done poorly. It didn't fix the seepage issue at all, and I was billed for the work. Several substantial holes were not backfilled well, though they are not leaking. Generally an unhappy camper, and wont be recommending them to anyone.

I will just have to deal with drops to 3 feet at the end of the year before it fills again. I am just glad the pond averages 9 feet or so when full. I happen to live in an area where storms part and generally we have a micro climate that makes sun lovers dance in joy and pond lovers weep. In all frustrating not to have a perfect pond, especially after passing up a contractor who was pricier but I found out later knew his stuff (decided before I came here).

Maybe the sun will shine on a dog's backside and the seeps will slow over time, but I dont have high expectations.

If the pond was dug downhill a little more and the surface was planned to be about 10 feet lower, I probably would have had no problems. The pricier contractor was suggesing this. There are springs on the backside the the dam the pump water up higher than that almost all year, though not of spectacular volumes. They also include some natural gas, so not sure if water quality would have suffered.

I am still far better off than with no pond, so I tell myself.

Sorry to hear that. Is there any chance that you could find a reputable builder to come back and make some other suggestions for corrective action? Perhaps the one that you did not use initially? Maybe if you got recommendations you could carve the expense out of your budget and eventually get to fix performed. I know what you mean, though, about having a leaking pond being better than none at all. One of ours will only hold water about halfway up, thanks to tree roots and muskrats. Still, it is nice having one and a half ponds!

So sorry to hear this liquidsquid!

I think as a family we have decided not to invest anything else into the pond leaks. I got enough backlash when the bill showed up, but felt obligated to pay after the popped tire issue. My wife was not too happy about the wasted money. Maybe the best solution is a well... I could just be throwing random darts otherwise.

Something rattling around the back of my skull is finding a location closer to work that can support a better pond, just my view would suffer, and my investment in all of my orchard trees.

If I landed in some real money, I would drop the pond downhill for a complete re-do and some sizing up. I may have better luck with praying for a meteor in just the right spot.

So you don't want to throw money into a hole in the ground like the rest of us? Well you're no fun.

Cecil if PB had a "like" button like Facebook I'd like this.

Trust me, the temptation is there! But not to get political; "affordable healthcare" just took a substantial dent out of my disposable income. If somehow I can come up with around 10K from some side work, I may go with the overhaul and lower the pond level and expand to capture springs. It may mean starting over fish-wise, but it may be worth it.

Do you have any pictures of the site? I guess I'm not understanding, is the water seeping into a spring under the pond or can you see where the water is seeping through the dam? I think overhaul would be the cheap route and maybe they might break the spring that is sucking the water out of your pond if thats the case.

This may be a possible cheaper solution for you. I had a leaky dam on my 1.3 acre since it was built 4 years go. My pond never stayed more than about 1/3 full.

I ran into a friend at the feed store who recommended somebody local who might help. This man builds, ponds, roads, etc. He came out and looked things over. He said that he thought my water was likely all going out through the dam and not the dam and the bottom. Since my pond had water and was stocked I didn't really want to drain it which he had suggested. He told me he had repaired leaky dams before by building up clay from the back side and that it could work in my case since he thought my dam was on the thin side (15' at the base). Since I had material readily available on the back side of the dam, he started pushing it up and compacting it in 6" layers. The pond is nearly full (well past where it leaked before) and no leaks; holding fine. There are no guarantees this will work in the long haul, but he is pretty confident the problem is fixed. My fingers are crossed.

After getting bids in the $18,000 - $26,000 range to repair the leak, this $1,200 fix is a blessing. There are two large ponds across the street from me that have large dams with no cores built in and they hold water fine. The only difference they have from mine is that the width of their dams, from the base up, are much wider than mine.

That was basically the idea we had: dig a core across the back of the dam down to good subsoil, then backfill with clay up above the waterline. Essentially to try to build a new core in the dam.

I am finding right now the pond is filling slowly with no runoff going into the pond. Seems I an somewhat connected to ground water, but at a very low flow rate. I think my only real solution is to lower to the pond to a good groundwater level, or empty the pond, excavate it a bit, and backfill and seal with better clay than I have on-site. If I use clay on-site, I will need to clobber it with a sheepsfoot roller.

Re-work is probably never going to happen. Now I am forced to buy my wife some nice jewelry so I can stop hearing the complaining about how I wasted money on the attempt at the fix. ;-)

We did not build a core in the back of the dam or do any digging at all. Instead onsite dirt/clay was just pushed in layers onto the base of the dam and worked up to the top by a dozer. This resulted in increasing the dam width by about 1/2, maybe more at the base. So far so good. If the dam starts to leak again, I'll let you guys know. It is the least expensive fix by far and if it fails after a while the end result will be that I got a much stronger dam that I don't have to worry about breaching. If it begins to leak at some point in the future, coring the back side will be the way I go.

I found a university site online (Kansas or aTm) that recommended using pond lining material in the core trench. I like that idea as it doesn't have to be compacted and the trench can be as narrow as one can dig it. I think I would pour bentonite in it to seal the bottom though.

I had a similar experience with a very old pond on our farm. Was not even thinking of renovating it but had some extra time with the dozer while the scraper was working on our new pond and not much for the dozer to do so I started pushing muck out of the bottom and extended the old pond bigger. It had been just a pasture cattle pond back when there were cows on the place. When I dug out the newer portion we ended up with a large pile of clay stockpiled to the side of the pond.

This pond had always had a seep for as long as I can remember. It was nothing serious and the pond had enough runoff that it was never a problem. But there was always a wet spot behind the dam where a tractor could get stuck if not careful.

After the new pond was finished and again had some time with the dozer and scraper (we own our own machines) I decided to put the excess clay on the back side of the dam. The pond had already filled at that time and the wet spot was still there. Like yours, this old pond had a narrow dam which was too steep to mow on the back side. So my idea was to put the excess clay in there and slope it about a 3-1 so it could be mowed.

When I ran across the wet spot I remembered the seep that had always been there. I dug down as deep as I dared with the dozer without getting stuck (almost did) which was not very deep. Pushed fresh clay off into it and commenced packing it in. Once I got enough over it so the scraper would not get mired down moved the rest of the dirt with the scraper, compacting as I layered in the new clay.

Now I would not absolutely swear the seep is completely fixed, but at least there is no wet spot in that particular place any more. There is a small seasonal creek that runs directly behind the dam so it is possible the seep just moved lower and is going into the creek.

But now the dam is about three times as wide at the base (runs to the edge of the creek), has no wet spot, and is sloped enough to be mowed safely with a flex wing mower and tractor. So I either A. fixed the leak, or B. slowed it down a bunch or C. made it leak in a more convenient place (directly into the creek instead of surrounding ground.

I'm going with A. and that's my story and I'm sticking to it. At least till I find evidence otherwise.

So like you, I just widened the dam (essentially made a new dam on the back side of the old dam) at the base and it seemed to fix the problem.

One thing about a leak, if it is big enough to erode it will only get bigger and worse. If a person can get it slowed down to a point where it can not do more damage, there is the potential for particles in the water to eventually plug it up and fix it more permanently. At least that is the way it would seem to work to me.

I may have just got lucky. I always try to give luck its due credit as luck I believe plays a larger role in life than a lot of people believe. If it were more dependable, I would rely on luck all the time. Problem is, luck is just to darn undependable. And sometimes it can be the wrong kind of luck.

Good post, Snrub. That is exactly what we did and the guy who did it says that it has been an effective fix for him several times in the past when he was unable to work inside the pond due to it having water in it. We may both be lucky, but I'll take it.

I wish I could solve it that way, but my dam is already fairly large and easy to mow. It also makes excellent sledding!

So an update:

Pond still leaks, pretty badly. Right now I have plenty of inflow keeping it topped off, probably enough to support a pond 5x this size. A regular creek. However, I have a decent hose-worth of leak out from where "repairs" were made last fall.
I suppose the good news is I absolutely know where the leak is now and it may be repairable given the right expertise. More good news is right down the road is a new neighbor who makes a living restoring wetlands and fixing ponds. Bad news, I don't know him well enough to get work for free, nor would I ask unless I could return the favor of equal value.

The interesting part of this fiasco is I can see where the work was done on the dam, and a larger chunk of dam was cut into and up-slope right where the leak is, almost as if it were discovered while trying to fix it, but didn't pull it off. I am guessing the leak used to be lower in elevation where I couldn't see it, and now it is moved uphill where I can.

So, Google Earth now has updated my imagery
42°52'18.35"N, 77°26'33.35"W
And it managed to capture the time when repairs were being made as you can see the excavation equipment still parked there. The leak is right in the middle of the tallest part of the dam, and not at the base.

At least the fish are happy and the water quality is great.
*sigh*.

Well I guess it is a good news, bad news situation.

At least you are making progress toward a permanent solution.

Good luck moving forward.