Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Soil questions Clay liner vs salt/soda ash

FishinRod,

Sorry for the late reply, to answer your questions without being too long winded:

1) Initial construction: Small 1/8 acre pond dug that wasn't compacted at all, but bentonite was worked into the soil and it held great...stayed full approx 1-2 years. Unfortunately the banks partially washed in after a couple of big rains and it looked terrible on top of being smaller. Paid to have it cleaned out and decided to go bigger (1/3 acre) and deeper (11') at that time. Again, no compaction, I thought I could put some bentonite in it and things would be fine. I WAS WRONG, lol. The pond leaked and we drained it. I have no idea about the clay content of my site.

I elected to do the clay liner. I had about 500 tons of red fill/clay brought in, installed, and compacted in two 6" lifts for a total of 1' of material.

*Cost of material+trucking was $6.50/Ton
*I paid them by the hour to run a huge case loader spreading it all out and driving over it while the did. I was into them for about 9 hours of their time.
*I also rented a vibratory sheepsfoot (on recommendation from teehjaeh57-he told me to insist on this)

If this fix is successful, I'll make a post detailing everything...hopefully I'll get to make that post lol.



Side note:
I'd like to thank teehjaeh57 for all of his guidance. He doesn't know me at all, but took multiple calls from me (for free) and gave me very valuable advice. Additionally, he could have recommended that I buy polymer from him (and I likely would have), but he told me that he thinks my clay liner should be enough to do the job. Honest, stand-up guy for sure. If I do wind up with small leaks, I'll likely contact him and apply some of his polymer as a "plan B" to my clay liner.

Hope to be posting soon and thanks TJ!