After making peace with the idea that I should just go ahead and dig the hole I need to dig -- vs. dismantling and altering the aqua blocks -- I have been outside a couple of days, chipping away at the hardpan. This giant hole has not had a shovel involved at all. (Except to remove the sod.) I started with a mattock and have used a combination of sledgehammer and wedge, crowbar, and as of yesterday, a hammer and chisel. I feel like the Michelangelo of intake bay excavations... The ground out here was driven over repeatedly with a full sized bulldozer 18 years ago, for an addition to the house. It was scraped down to the southern equivalent of bedrock (super dry, compacted, hardpan clay) and then leveled with the dirt that was scraped (also clay) and smooshed, smashed, and squashed. It is packed hard and packed solid. At this point, I'm down to the pseudo "bedrock" and it's a matter of chip, chip, chipping away with the chisel. I'm almost there, y'all! I think I can technically fit the two blocks plus the pump vault, but I need to make sure I have a good 2 or 3 inches all the way around to accommodate folds in the liner and underlay. We are supposed to get 4 to 6 inches of rain in the next 3 days, though, (Yay. More rain.) so I will get to rest my arms for a while! (And the rain pools, then eventually drains out. It doesn't do a thing to make the digging any easier.) I know I'm being a whiner, but if anyone can relate to the enormity of this task, I know it's you folks. Just an update...
Guess who is out having fun? (It's ME!) Planning wildlife pond for backyard
- Thread starter bagsmom
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Not to add to your chipping and excavating project, but in most applications using AquaBlox it's recommended to backfill with sand around the blocks. So between the ground and the underlay you fill with sand to help lock the whole structure into place. Especially when you're working with hard clay it's important as you want to make sure to fill with sand, pack the sand, and fill with more sand. You're only using a few blocks so it won't be that much of a difference. We had a pit that was 6 feet deep so we had to add a LOT Of sand.
You may have already thought of this, and in that case JUST IGNORE ME! But it was a huge mistake we made when digging for our rain exchange - we had hired out the digging and then when putting the whole thing together realized our measurements were based on blocks and liner alone. No room for sand. Had to pull it all apart and dig some more. So my message to you - and anyone using AquaBlox - is to OVER DIG!
You may have already thought of this, and in that case JUST IGNORE ME! But it was a huge mistake we made when digging for our rain exchange - we had hired out the digging and then when putting the whole thing together realized our measurements were based on blocks and liner alone. No room for sand. Had to pull it all apart and dig some more. So my message to you - and anyone using AquaBlox - is to OVER DIG!
my clay has a perfect dig zone, 2 to 3 days after a rain it's tolerable. Intolerable when dry, it's concrete, and intolerable when really wet, the shovel weighs 50 pounds in 2 uses. You might use a pitch fork (and wear boots and aim well) to make some holes in the area you are trying to dig and improve water soaking in, before the rain
@Alice_Bee -- I wish it were that easy! Now it's all hammer and chisel work! Luckily the main part of the pond had some easy to dig areas. Pure, red clay that was stable and solid, but cut nice and easily. If you have ever sculpted, it was just like very firm artist's clay, only orange. That was a pleasure to dig through!
All this talk of clay makes me worry about drainage..... if water gets under your liner air bubbles and water entrapment can make huge bubbles under your liner. You might want to think about some sort of a drain under the liner.. Bagsmom a hammer drill with a chisel tip will save you a boat load of work ....
Go to the local coffee shops, talk to the contractors and landscrapers never know what can happen. But looking from your soil it appears there are not a lot of bones/ stones, boulders in that clay.
Sorry if this is a double but i don't see the other responce. Rocks aren't the only items you can use to edge the pond tree limbs drift wood stumps and moss are some of the other trim details i did on the pond. you can see one piece of driftwood in the beginning of this video and moss is all over
Sorry if this is a double but i don't see the other responce. Rocks aren't the only items you can use to edge the pond tree limbs drift wood stumps and moss are some of the other trim details i did on the pond. you can see one piece of driftwood in the beginning of this video and moss is all over
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Sweet there are ways around stone. and as you get some here and there it will let you continue to tinker,
Here is an update on the second pond. I'm on hold - again. Or still... I have all the equipment, liner, and underlay. The excavation is complete, except for little tweaks that will happen as I build. The husband has had a corona paycut and we are sending two off to college this year instead of one. I had money set aside for rocks and we were going to go ahead and use it for that. Then -- our chest freezer decided it's tired of living. It is miraculously still hanging on, but we can tell it's starting to crap out. (23 years old!) So now we need to use the rock money for that. I guess I will focus on yoga and weightlifting now, so I will be strong enough to move rocks when I can afford them again. Right now I have lower back and hip issues and get tennis elbow in both arms when I do much of anything. Let's hope I can do the work when the "ship comes back in."