Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Help New Pond Owner, Advise Please?

Lenox (Maria). I'm guessing New Lenox. Lol

Shoot me a PM or email with the address, I can look on my satellite program and map the pond area for you. It's very hard to guesstimate the size of the pond from the picture. I can get sort of close if I were to know the dimensions of the outside of the house. I can get REALLY close using the program.

Agreed about the goals. Goals are what YOU want to get from the pond, be it a nice fishery, or just a nice BOW (Body of Water) to look at.

Yes, if you can get the sellers to provide a receipt or even just the name/phone number and date that the pond was dredged, that will help.

I'll try to answer some of the questions.

1) Yes, of course you can do the maintenance yourself. As for costs, it all depends on what you want the water to look like and what your goals are for the pond.

2) If they had maintenance done, and they can tell you who did it, you might be able to call them and ask them what they were doing and what the annual costs were. Costs can be figured a few ways. BUT before going in to prices I need to find out the area of the pond.

3) Maintenance records aren't required, neither is the dredging record, but without it, and if you can't verify the water depth, that might have a bearing on how much the place will sell for. If it is shallow and you have to get it cleaned out it will most likely cost $5K or more. Mostly due to trucking costs to dispose of the spoils and to rebuild the lawn that gets trashed.

4) If a fishery is part of the goal then look into an aeration system for both summer and winter aeration to help prevent a fish kill due to an O2 crash. Since you have a fountain there, if the wire size is large enough you can run both and not have to worry about trenching in wire or air line to the pond for an aeration system. You should yank the fountain out of the pond for the winter. Clean it and do any maintenance over the winter so it's ready to go back in the Spring.

5) To measure the depth of the pond, take the paddle boat out with a cloth/plastic fiber tape measure and a weight. If the paddle-boat is not an option, if you fish, take a fishing rod and a bobber with enough weight to sink the bobber. Cast to different areas of the pond, adjusting the depth of the bobber so it won't sink. Measure the pond depth that way to verify you are being told what happened, not what you want to hear. When I bought this place I didn't verify what I was told. 12' deep pond turned into 6' depth really quick with the majority of it only about 18"-2' depth during a drought.