QUESTION ABOUT RAISED (just a little) SIDES

[Mmathis]

I want to have the sides of my "pond-to-be" raised, maybe 6" to a foot above ground level (our yard doesn't always drain very well). Just as an elevation, but still lined with rocks & plants. I've read some articles & posts about digging footers and using concrete & rebar as underground supports. I really don't want to go to that extreme if I don't have to.

Will a dirt berm a few extra inches high around the perimeter be adequate? Or would that be in danger of washing out?

I had thought about hammering in some 2x6's or 2x8's then back-filling around those, to drape the liner over. But then wondered if the weight of the water would pull on the wood too much.....

Same thought for landscape blocks.

Any ideas, suggestions, comments will [probably] be welcome But the parts that my box turtles will access will have to be boxie-safe & easy for them to navigate.


(How big will my pond be? I have no idea. I started out thinking it would be maybe 100 - 300 gal, and last time I drew it out it was up to 1200 gal. Go figure!)

 

[sissy]

why not use the landscape blocks so you will not have to worry about the dirt washing out .I have 2 walls on mine an inside wall made with concrete block rebared in and then the block wall out side ,won't work for you but the block might .On the side close to the side walk it is only 1 block up ,this way you could gradually work the dirt up to it and lock the liner over the top back down into the soil on the other side of the block .The blocks come in 6 inches high and 12 inches high and up

 

[addy1]

I raised my sides on the up slope side, just by back sloping the land, I would watch the rain see how it flowed. Anywhere I had issues I used dirt to make a berm stomped on it to harden draped the liner over it, put more dirt on top so rocks, plants would hide the liner. So far doing great. No more than 6 inches high.

 

[DrCase]

No higher than you are going a 2" footing of concrete , and a mortared in row of 8" blocks ,capped with a brick would put you close to 12"
If you dont have termites wood will work also

 

[taherrmann4]

Depending on how high you are going, if it is only a few inches just use dirt, pack it down and then put a rock border around it with large rocks, like a rock wall.

 

[Mmathis]

In our case, won't be working with sloped areas -- flat yard. And pretty much, when it rains, the water doesn't flow so much as it "collects." But the whole yard isn't like that: good drainage/bad drainage areas....

DRCASE -- Is there a "rule-of-thumb" for when (minimum depth, soil properties, etc?) you need to do footings? I'm not knowledgable about construction, but am interested in learning what I need to know. Do you think I could use blocks without having to make footers? Sure would like to use recommendations made by other posters, but also want my pond to be as stable as possible, yet constructed within my skill level.

 

[Mmathis]

Oops, meant to say "minimum height [of the wall]."

 

[DrCase]

With are mild winters down south the 2 to 3" thick footing would be enough for your low wall
I have had one on the low side of my pond for years with out a problem
You could pick the spot you want the over flow water to spill out by lowering 1 brick on the top cap

 

[Mmathis]

DRCASE -- I see we are neighbors. What part of AR?

 

[taherrmann4]

My pond actually sits in a low spot in my yard where water from the lot next to me plus all my gutters and 1/2 my backyard drain through. so what I did was put a drain on the one side of my pond that would take the water around to the other side so when it rained I would not have water damning up next to my pond and eventually going into it. Now one problem I have had is that I did not put any sort of drainage material under the liner so I have at times gotten water that builds up under the liner and it creates a balloon effect draining the pond slightly. I have very poor draining soil, it is clay and will hold water for days. So I will put in a better french drain around the perimeter of the pond next time to keep this from happening.

 

[sissy]

I wonder if putting something like a dry creek bed for water to run would work or look nice .I see them all the time here and have 3 of my own that I put underground pipe on my gutters and drained into two of them . in the center of all the rock i dug down and put an under ground tank in so the water from the dry creek bed and gutters could flow into it and I just take the lid off drop fertilizer in it and an old pump from my pond with a hose attached and water my gardens .Only had the energy to do one underground tank .

 

[Mmathis]

TMANN -- Sounds like you have the same type "soil" I have. Fun stuff, that clay..... How did you do your French drain, and where do you have it releasing in relation to your pond? How well is that working, and what would you have done different to help drainage for your pond?

 

[Mmathis]

SISSY --I like that idea! There are a few people in the neighborhood with dry creekbeds and I'm so jealous because of all the nice rocks they use! They look very nice but have never asked how effective they are.

 

[taherrmann4]

TMANN -- Sounds like you have the same type "soil" I have. Fun stuff, that clay..... How did you do your French drain, and where do you have it releasing in relation to your pond? How well is that working, and what would you have done different to help drainage for your pond?

The drain I have now is a 3" pvc pipe that takes all the water from the lot next to me, part of my hill in the backyard, and half the rainwater from my driveway and goes around the pond and exits about 10' after my pond, there is also a y in there that is by my long creek that takes water from my gutters, and sidewalk that joins into this pipe. So I have a lot of water running through a 3" pipe should be a 4" pipe. I have done some modifications over the years one of them is that I noticed a lot of water always seems to come out from under the pond by my skimmer (probably b/c this is the slope of the land and that is the lowest spot) so I dug about 4" down and put in a pvc pipe to take that water to the same location that the other pipe exits out at. Then two years ago I put in a 4" pipe to take the water from where these discharge spots are all the way to the other side of my property, b/c that part of the yard was always wet (obviously). Works ok I still get water under the liner occasionally but it is not much unless we get a rain like last spring 10" in two days, then it becomes a problem, but I have strategically placed about 12 large rocks in the bottom along the edges to hold the liner down to keep it from ballooning, and it has worked.

Now what I would do differently is to put a french drain all the way around the pond that discharged on the low side of your pond 20-30 feet away. I would also put in a black perforated pipe (the same one you use in french drains) it would be in a small trench with a soil sock on it to keep dirt from getting in there and pea gravel over it but instead of sloping downward to where gravity would drain it, it would go up along the low side of the pond and discharge into the other french drains. Now you may be thinking how is it going to drain if it goes up hill, well what I have found out is that water will go the path of least resistance and if any water does build up in the pipe it will push itself up and out b/c the liner with all the water from the pond on the other side will weigh too much as long as the pipe is lower than your water level in the pond (not sure if that is critical or not). I have put a small pipe about 2' down the side of my pond between the liner and the dirt and it seemed to work when I did have a lot of water under the liner several years ago.

 

[sissy]

now they have those drain pipes like that that have popcorn under the socks to help filter the water as it goes through pipe ,not sure how good they work .I have 2 dry creek beds that i dug out to run my underground pipes from my gutters but instead of back filling I put rock in there to make a dry creek and then built a bridge trellis over it.The one pic was after a wind storm and it blew the roofs off my little houses