Newbie Question(s)

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Hello all from Seattle!

First post on here!

My wife and I recently ventured into the "pond life" and are in the midst of our pond build at the moment after a solid year plus of researching, reading, and finally deciding that it would be a cool, fun edition to the backyard, and something that we could tackle together. I've literally watched every Pond Digger video multiple times, and our pond mimics his 23 part series on ponds, but there were a few things he didn't cover.

We have done everything thus far ourselves, including excavation (by hand!), laying liner, sourcing rocks etc. We had purchased sort of a "all you need" pond kit from Half Off Ponds which included the 20'x20' underlayment and EPDM liner. Pond is abstract in shape, but is roughly 13'x9'.

So far we have excavated, pounded, have routed most of the plumbing, laid the underlayment and liner, and have began rocking in the pond.

So far it seems there are mixed reactions on rocking in the pond, but we love the way it looks and don't mind the additional work. I am at work right now, so don't have the pics to add (but will!), but had a few questions.

1. I am about 15 - 20' from my skimmer to my outside outlet. What is the best way to run the electrical for the "cleanest" look? from the skimmer to my outlet will be a direct shot, but will be over a future deck spot. I was just going to dig down 6-8" or so and put electrical through some pvc conduit to the outlet?

2. Pond lights, I have a three light system with transformer and solar timer. This came with my kit, and it is a little intimidating - do I run this with my pump power through the same conduit? Separate?

3. I have not attached the liner to the face plate of the skimmer or waterfall, and planned to do waterfall last after getting all of our larger rocks in place as to not pull the liner too taught and give ourselves some slack as we work from the inside of the pond out. Is that accurate?
 
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Welcome! And congratulations on your new pond! You're in for many hours of enjoyment!

I'll answer your power cord question - we just dug a trench and buried ours. It's about the same distance. Six years later we've never had an issue. Just don't forget where it is - landscapers hit another one of our buried extension cords installing a patio a few years ago! We used an orange cord for the pond so it would be harder to miss!
 
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Welcome! And congratulations on your new pond! You're in for many hours of enjoyment!

I'll answer your power cord question - we just dug a trench and buried ours. It's about the same distance. Six years later we've never had an issue. Just don't forget where it is - landscapers hit another one of our buried extension cords installing a patio a few years ago! We used an orange cord for the pond so it would be harder to miss!

Oh great! I thought it was just as simple as that as well, so I must be overthinking it. I figured it shouldn't be any issue running it that way, but wanted to check.

Thank you for the welcome! We are so looking forward to it!
 
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Heres a pic of my wife in the pond before underlayment and liner!
 

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looking good. The fun part is filling it up and getting in!

The only input is to say you have all that nice liner..... make your pond bigger to use it. I think that's a universal regret after you are done... is the size.
 

Mmathis

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Hello and welcome! Your wife looks so happy to be involved! For us it was a lot of work, but a labor of love!
 
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looking good. The fun part is filling it up and getting in!

The only input is to say you have all that nice liner..... make your pond bigger to use it. I think that's a universal regret after you are done... is the size.

Yeah, I can't seem to get good images that show just how big it is. It is actually a big size, I think the first step downs aren't showing well in photos. But it is great fun! Believe it or not, this is going big for us, as we had no intention initially of going this large until we read so much that going too small was the #1 regret. Thanks for the welcome!
 
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Hello and welcome! Your wife looks so happy to be involved! For us it was a lot of work, but a labor of love!

She is a trooper! I will say she is happy that all of the digging is behind us. Although still a lot of hard work left, I think she likes the work when she can see things taking shape vs. 10,000 shovels full of dirt. :)
 

addy1

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Welcome to our forum! Glad you joined.
Nice looking dig
 
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Fantastic job! You guys must be exhausted!
As an electrician, I would comment on not burying an extension cord. That is not a good practice. Your original idea of using conduit is the way to go. PVC electrical conduit is cheap and easy to work with. You can buy all the fittings, elbows, boxes, etc and just use PVC glue to connect them. The wire will be the most expensive part. #12 gauge, black for hot, white for neutral and the very important green for ground. You can place boxes where you need them and run the conduit between them. Protect the circuit with a GFCI. Any questions....just ask... Enjoy!
 
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Fantastic job! You guys must be exhausted!
As an electrician, I would comment on not burying an extension cord. That is not a good practice. Your original idea of using conduit is the way to go. PVC electrical conduit is cheap and easy to work with. You can buy all the fittings, elbows, boxes, etc and just use PVC glue to connect them. The wire will be the most expensive part. #12 gauge, black for hot, white for neutral and the very important green for ground. You can place boxes where you need them and run the conduit between them. Protect the circuit with a GFCI. Any questions....just ask... Enjoy!


Wait, so you cut open the outlet on the pump cord and splice it? I was just going to run the stock cord through the conduit to my outlet?
 

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