DESIGN IDEAS

[ididntdoit99]

Okay so im sitting around dreaming about how im going to redo my pond this spring. (instead of working like i should be) I really think that i've decided to move the entire pond from its current location, its further away from the trees, closer to electrcity, and easier to see from inside the house. Im actually thinking about putting it right out my rear sliding glass doors. As in, you walk out the doors and have to walk across a bridge over the pond to even get to the yard. Im having a little trouble though, I planned on buying a 20x25 liner, pond is 4 feet deep, and with about a foot extra on each edge that would make my pond roughly 10x 15
View attachment pond1.bmp

okay, here is kind of a rough drawing in solidworks, my house would be the puke green thing along the bottom (don't worry, my house isnt really this color) then, when it steps out 4 feet, thats is a rock garden that goes all the way around the house. grey thing is a 4x4 foot cement slab right out the back door, the brown thing would be the bridge, I really dont want it to stick out further than the rock beds, i feel it would look funny way out in the yard. Then there is the big blue pond... now as you can see, this is the max size for the pond, and without thinning out the middle, obviously the bridge isnt going all the way across it. That is where my problem occurs.. .now i could take out the 4x4 slab, bring the bridge all the way up to the house and bring the pond closer, but still bridge is only 8 feet long then (thats how far the rock beds extend from the house, remember, i dont want the bridge to stick out further. I have a really hard time buying a liner, and then not using the entire thing, bringing in part of the pond, make me lose volume, and i just really dont want to spend that much money on a liner and then not use every inch of it i can.

View attachment pond2.bmp

in all reality, i'd like it to look more like this, this one would obviously be a larger liner, abut again, with the weird shape, and having to make it thinner in the bridge area, i still feel like im wasting my money because im not using the entire liner. Im stuck bewteen a rock and a hard place, or a bridge and a house i guess. I really like the idea of walking out the back rigth and being right on top of the pond. I think its a much better spot than it currently is int he corner of my yard, but i also feel like if im going to spend my money on the liner, i should use it all and make my fish's envirmonet as big as it can possibly be. what do you guys think?

 

[ididntdoit99]

sorry, jeez i gott remember those bmp files are big, here they are as jpeg's

 

[sissy]

.I have a deck outside mine for my grill so guessing you don't need that .The best place for a pond is where you spend the largest amount of time and where you can enjoy it the most .I always say that if you have to walk out to it to enjoy it why have it,but then again if you have smaller children it is safer farther away .I built mine down at the side of my covered front porch because that the area I can see it the most .I can see it from inside but only from 1 of my master bathrooms the best inside and can only see the waterfall from the other master bathroom .I really like the shape of your pond in the second pic but may be harder to achieve with the liner.Also remeber the closer the bridge and pond is to the house the more safety concerns you may have .Plus heavy rains and washouts from gutters because of that ,plus snow or ice coming off the roof .I don't know how much a pitch you have on your roof ,but you may want to look at the water coming off your roof in a heavy rain .

 

[ididntdoit99]

.The best place for a pond is where you spend the largest amount of time and where you can enjoy it the most .

I don't think i can build a pond at work, or in my bed, lol

kids.. yeah i do have those, but they don't go outside without me, im not too worried about anything like that happening. my back patio is actually much larger than what i have drawn right now, there are 2x2 pavers all over back there, around the 4x4 block that was there already. i just know i'll be roemoving most of them if i put the pond there. Grill can always go toward the left, where the pond is a little further from the house.

 

[sissy]

I mean for viewing LOL .I did see one pond on you tube that the guy built with retaining wall block right outside his bedroom window ,problem one he found out when waterfall started running and his poor wife had to live with it and it did not bother him .I guess happy wife happy life was not something he seemed to care about .Don't put your grill against the house ,seen to many of those fires down here ,that and turkey fryer fires and to many stories that I heard of when I lived in NJ but did not believe people could be that dumb ,but guess what down here some are and I had a reality check .LOL

 

[ididntdoit99]

Oh it wouldnt be against the house, in the left side second picture, there is a good open area there.

Right now, dog kennel, big patio, and small garden are all in that area, so I'd have to do a lot of yard rearranging to make this plan happen, not to mention a lot of convincing my fiance how cool of an idea this is. She isnt the best at imagining things "as they could be" like I am. Which in turn, makes her very hard to convince that yes, I should buy that that junk car, or bringing home a pile of old wooden pallets, or whatever it is I happen to have a fascination with at that moment.

 

[sissy]

oh ear one of those and never underestimate how far snow can fall off a roof .I NJ my escort station wagon was over 10 feet from the house and bad snow ( it was real bad that year ) hit my car when it came barreling off the roof and totaled the car and it only had 10 thousand miles on it at the time . Ice and snow I found out the can be bad falling from a second story cape cod house ,but never would have thought that could happen .Insurance company could not believe there eyes .I would not want your fiance to say I told you so ,not so good for you when you have future ideas .Me now ,i like the idea and I wonder if you could use the free google sketch up for showing her what your plans are .I never tried it with a pond but I can use it for some of my landscaping ideas .I actually have my house and land I did on it just to see if some of my ideas worked out and looked alright .I have plans of building a roof over the deck on 1 of my back decks .

 

[ididntdoit99]

Well I'm kind of dorking out at work today, It's friday and I'm not feeling very motivated, so I'm playing instead. I'm starting to draw up a 3d model of my property, that I can change and save when ever I make changes to my yard. Then I will always have a nice, to scale, 3d representation, and i can draw stuff in and see how it looks. Hopefully it will help me design my new pond also.

Anyway, this is as far as I got today, I better get some actual work done now. got the house drawn, front deck, and the line coming straight out is a line of railraod ties, that seperates the driveway from the yard. This is all coming off the top of my head, so I still need to make some changes... i know the windows arent even close to the right size, i just stuck them in there.

 

[sissy]

try google sketchup it is free and works great I use it .Fun just to play around with it .

 

[ididntdoit99]

I like solidworks... and i work with it everyday for 3D modeling.

 

[sissy]

I tried sketchup because I saw it on the DIY network and figured it was free so why not try it .It took a small learning curve but it was easy to figure out after a few tries .

 

[ididntdoit99]

It'll be really nice once i get the whole property drawn out and i can move stuff around, add things and see how they look right here on my computer, then when spring comes, i'll already have a good idea of what landscaping changes i want to make.

 

[sissy]

Thats why I was glad I could find something to help me as all there was after the house was done was 3 acres of dirt a house and nothing and sketchup really helped .I had it all graphed out on paper but hard to tell where things should go .I had to place the carport the guest house and then out trees and shrubs where needed most
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[Culchie]

I'm thinking along the same lines as you. I want a peanut style pond with a bridge off my deck and over the middle of the pond. About the same size as you are thinking of. So I will follow this thread.