Rock sizes/amounts for border

[paintguru]

Well I am about ready to order my rock for my pond build (starting in a week). My plan is to go barebottom and only have rock on the edges and first shelf. I plan to use granite boulders and the size ranges I can get are 4-8" and 12-24" in size (I could go bigger but I'm not sure we could move those rocks!!). My target pond size is ~9 feet by 20 feet, and a calculator I found online suggested about 4.5 tons of rock. Right now I'm thinking 2 tons of each size set, but I obviously don't want to run out of rock! Should I tack on another ton? What size would you suggest? Any other tips on edging the pond with rock? Thanks!

 

[CountryEscape]

Wow, I've never had to try to figure out how much rock by weight. Going to watch this thread to see if others have. Good luck! I just bought rock, used it up, bought more rock, used it up .... until it was done. But, then, I didn't have to get it all done at the same time, so I was happy to do it that way.

 

[paintguru]

Ha, yeah I'd prefer to just pay the delivery fee once!

 

[CountryEscape]

My only suggestion then is to go with more rock than you think you will need. ALWAYS a place to put extra rock.

 

[paintguru]

That is my thought as well. Just wondering if it would be easier to place extra 12-24" rocks or 4-8" rocks. I'm thinking the bigger since that can be used to hold up a rock garden or berm.

 

[Meyer Jordan]

Not sure what calculator you used but it was likely for determining that amount of rock for an eco-system pond where the walls of the pond are rocked. Apparently you used the Aquascape calculator, which is pretty accurate. This calculator is configured for a 24" deep pond.
Since you are going to rock only down to the first shelf you should certainly have enough rock at 4.5 tons. If you are doing a waterfall, that will haave to be determined separately. Too bad you can't get 8" - 12" rock. It would look so much better if you could use the standard rock size ratio....25% - 50% - 25%.

 

[paintguru]

Well I found another place that sells the sizes as we like....6-12/12-18/18-24. Ended up getting 1 ton of 6-12, 2 tons of 12-18, and 2 tons of 18-24. We'll see how that goes!

 

[Meyer Jordan]

The final result should look much better with the 3 sizes.

 

[sissy]

this may help a little