From the perspective of being a business owner, a pond really isnt that expensive of a project, it is all the basic landscaping and hardscape that kills you.
Here's a few pics of one of the most expensive pond projects we did that I have in this computer. The pond itself is only about 5000 gallons, plus the little river/falls. The "goals" were some natural looking flower beds (aka NOT FANCY), a basic pond, and a sitting area into a sloped area that was ugly as hell... As you go through the pics, it is easy to see that $40,000 in materials was a very conservative number, and not even remotely exagerated. It also doesnt address the labor bill for 6 WEEKS of 2-4 guys on site.
This is a before pic. This is looking at the street (busy) with the house behind me.
This is the final (so far anyways)... It's too bad everything isnt in bloom at the time I took this one. Other than the wooden fence, and the trees that remained from the before picture, it you see it, we did it (except for the 2 chairs and the little statue). The wall in the background, the stone walls, the pond, the plantings, lawn w/irrigation, stepping stones, etc, etc, etc...
Close up of the steps... approaching the pond... hard to see but the stacked river rock walls (dry laid and acting as retaining walls) are at two heights to build up to the patio area.
Same area, just at a different angle..
Patio area is buried river rock with mint planted between them.
Not the best pic of the pond... The liner is hidden by rocks motared in place... this client did not want to see liner... He HATES doing this. The lighting was bad, but if you look at the left edge of the pic, you can also see more river rock used for steps and a walkway to get around the pond...
This is just a pic at the top of the river... Oh, that bridge wasnt our idea... it was a gift from the neighbor, we only put it together and put it where the client wanted it.
And this is from the top of the river, looking down to the pond... Barely in view is a wishing well that hides the pump.
The original pond (without the river) was installed either in 2001, or 2002... and has NEVER had a partial water change of ANY type, for ANY reason after it was okay'd for fish additions, it has NEVER needed medications, nor has a fish EVER died in it from lack of water changes. Over the years, they have lost a few fish to raccoons, but the only problem they have had is in over population due to spawning, and every couple of years we remove a few dozen fish for them. The ONLY things this client does for this pond is feed their fish, and add water for evaporation. We check the pond for them every spring when we turn on their lawn irrigation system, and in the fall, rake out the leaves/prune the lilies when we blow out (shut off) their lawn irrigation system. Filters run 24/7, year round. We havent even had to replace the pump yet.
Now for our yard... I have no clue of what we have invested so far into our backyard. We only started it this spring (had to get through all the house construction stuff first). The present 6500 gallon pond was "slapped in" so we had "something" this year (and the other pond/bog, well, it seemed like a good place to stick one LOL), as we were both really frustrated with having to wait. As any ponder knows, you cant go from having ponds to having none. This is how it came to be that we have the 750 in the basement. We had to put our existing fish somewhere. Back to outside... Where the REAL pond is going, has a major delay. To be able to properly set the grades in the backyard, the walls and patios need to go in first. Problem is the materials alone JUST for the walls and pavers are $18,000 (wholesale).
This pic shows the only spot available in the yard to slap an extra pond in before all the other work gets done. The board is sitting about on the edge of where the 6500 now sits...
This is just a view from the other end of the house... irrigation lines need to be run at the same time too (the coil of black pipe)
This is just a small section of wall with the cap and the feed into the garage steps (temp plantings of veggies LOL)...
More of the garage steps, and the start of the "fountain bed"... The fountain bed comes off the house 14' and is about 18' wide. For numbers, this bed alone needs 6 pallets of block, and a bit better than 1.5 pallets of cap... Where the cheesey fence is sitting (just keeps the dog in the yard for now) there's another set of steps (4 steps) and wall that needs to go there to get to driveway height, and to the right, out of the picture, another wall (only a foot high, will run about 30' along another building til we fade it out/stop.
This is the fountain... She was in the front yard but a "kind soul" tried to steal her. Thank God when they figured out how heavy she was, they changed their minds and didnt break her! She is now in a safe place in the garage, but she, the two red twig dogwoods, and 2 smoke bushes are going to the "fountain bed"...
Materials that really cant be seen is the full footing under the wall (2' wide, 1' deep, compacted gravel), or that everything is backfilled in gravel with a french drain for proper drainage, irrigation, etc...
So once all of the above is done, then can address the pavers, which is 1800-2000 square feet in area. If you look back at the second picture, where the big mound of dirt is, and the little pile of stone dust is, THAT is where the "big pond" is going, with a river going back over to the 6500... Really need to have the pavers in before doing the pond to be certain the grades match exactly, as where the pond meets the patio, will be using bullnosed pavers, so that the pond meets the patio in the same manner as an inground pool.
WOW, was this a long post!
