Concrete House on a Pond?

[Querorz]

Guys,

I am an architect and i have been planning to have my own pond house for a while. But where i live(Turkey), land is very expensive and water is scarce.

So, i thought why waste some of the land with only a house? Why not have the water actually under the house. This way:

1- More water in my small land.
2- Less evaporation because of the shading the house provides.
3- How cool that would feel !

It is going to be made of concrete and it should be EPDM linered. But, is it possible to efficiently line the foundation?

For those who don't know how a concrete foundation looks, i did little sketching.

There should be some risks, that i am probably not aware of. What might those be? Mosquitos maybe? My wife is very much concerned about mosquitos.


By the way, this is not a koi pond. This is a fishing pond.


Thank you.

 

[addy1]

Sounds neat, looks neat. Mosquitos will be taken care of with the fish in the pond.

How about humidity? what will the constant moisture do to the bottom of the house structure?

and welcome to our group!

 

[Richardspond]

LOL Yes you are an architect, but that will cost a fortune for those peirs and if your are lucky, you wont need spread footer peirs
Here where I live that'd be a about a 2mil dollar home or more

 

[Querorz]

Addy bro, what concerns me is the humidity , the pond will cause in the air, which will probably be depressing for us in the summer. But i don't know if a pond can actually make the air in the house humid. Let's consider a lake. Does it feel more humid near a lake?

Humidity is not a major concern for concrete. Imagine all the bridges, docks or water houses in the water. Water is not good for the concrete if it's not consistent. If concrete gets wet and then dries up again and again, it will start cracking.



Richard , i don't know if concrete is very expensive there but this is how building is done here and a concrete house which is similar to an average American house doesn't cost more than 200 grand here.


Guys, again, is it possible to line this structure? Leaking is not toleratable for me.

 

[Richardspond]

Yes they make spray on liner for concrete ponds that will water proof the concrete, and will keep toxins from concrete away from the fish. I've read pure concrete isn't safe but I've seen a lot of concrete ponds.

No, here you couldn't touch that home for less than a mil, be amazing to see when your done!

 

[Querorz]

Richard i think we might be talking about different construction solutions. Let me show you the options in my head. I have zero experience with liners. And i am sure local liner appliers here haven't done something like this before either. So i gotta learn it from you.

The problem with the option 1 is that liner can't carry the weight of the building.

The second one and the third one are similar. But how do you connect the liner with concrete, so it doesnt leak? Is there such a technology?



OPTION 1

OPTION 2

OPTION 3

 

[Richardspond]

Once the bldg is in place and the water containment in place, you spray the liner directly onto the concrete. Around every peir and footer. In essence the home is still sitting on concrete not liner. It's sprayed as a thick liquid and sets up pretty stong. Google spray in pond liner

 

[Meyer Jordan]

I would suggest that you concrete the entire pond basin because-
1. This amount of weight resting on any liner is going to destroy the integrity of the liner and it will leak.
2. Attaching liner to concrete is possible, but in your circumstances there would be seaming required to seal the perimeter of the support columns. Again over time this will also likely leak.
3. A concrete basin can be easily sealed with any good pond sealant.

 

[MitchM]

Whatever you do, you should concern yourself with the building structure first and lining the pond second.
Those footings will need to be sitting on some sort of bedrock.
If and when the liner leaks, the moisture will seep into the ground and compromise stability of the building foundation.
I'm not familiar with winter conditions in your area, but because concrete is porous, it will absorb moisture. Wet concrete freezing and thawing will eventually degrade and break apart.

 

[Querorz]

Guys, i can't make the whole pond bottom from concrete. I know i haven't mentioned but this thing will be as large as 1/2 acres , at least. It will cost a lot to make it of concrete. And sealing it with some sealant would be very costly too.

At the same time , i can't risk the possibility of it leaking from the connection points, which sounds very likely to happen.

Let's look back at this option again. The blue line i drew is the water level. What if this one is applied? The water wouldn't reach to the connection point of liner and concrete. So, no concerns of leaking. However , having said i am inexperienced in this , this options seems little impossible to apply.

Btw, Mitch that was a good point man. But fortunately , here the bottom is all rocks. Bedrock is couple ft from the surface.

 

[Timothy]

I am coming into this a little late, but why not line your pond and float your home? Regardless of your method it would seem you'll need a pier of sorts. What had you envisioned for facilities? Electrical, gray water, black water?

 

[Mmathis]

I can't speak to any structural issues, but what a neat idea!

 

[Faebinder]

You're gonna have to make a walkway across the water made from concrete to move heavy furniture Etc into the house. Otherwise it's doable.

 

[Timothy]

If the home was floating the initial load-in could be done with a simple ramp from "dockside", then move the home to it's predetermined "moored" location. This is an over-simplification, but several designers have developed essentially an inverted concrete box that enclosed huge closed cell foam billets. These billets provide the flotation, while the concrete provides the "shell" to protect the foam. In some cases a minimal cellar is provided to house the furnace, pumps, and storage.
I have considered using this same idea for a summer camp sort of place using the billets, but instead of concrete, using a pressure treated deck and PT strapping around the perimeter to contain/protect the foam. A two or three room structure would be built on this "barge" complete with screened porch, and sun deck on the roof. A rowing/sailing skiff for fishing and quick runs ashore for groceries.
Very doable!

 

[Meyer Jordan]

Guys, i can't make the whole pond bottom from concrete. I know i haven't mentioned but this thing will be as large as 1/2 acres , at least. It will cost a lot to make it of concrete. And sealing it with some sealant would be very costly too.

At the same time , i can't risk the possibility of it leaking from the connection points, which sounds very likely to happen.


Let's look back at this option again. The blue line i drew is the water level. What if this one is applied? The water wouldn't reach to the connection point of liner and concrete. So, no concerns of leaking. However , having said i am inexperienced in this , this options seems little impossible to apply.

Btw, Mitch that was a good point man. But fortunately , here the bottom is all rocks. Bedrock is couple ft from the surface.

In this option the liner will require cutting and seaming to cover the support columns.

A 1/2 acre basin would be too large for the practical use of EPDM. PVC or Polypropylene liners would be your other 2 options,

Is clay readily available in your area? If so, instead of a liner, create an earthen-bottom pond using the clay and Bentonite and just support the house on the footers you have indicated.