Welcome to the GPF! Absolutely nothing wrong with lots of research before you dig - save yourself a lot of aggravation later!
We built our pond with a negative edge and an underground water storage - that's where our pump sits. So we don't have a skimmer per se, just a "pit" full of rocks and gravel that catches the debris as it's pulled over the side.
Our plumbing is all external and buried about a foot underground. It goes from the pump, all the way around one edge of the pond to the side of the bog, where it goes up and over the edge of the bog to the bottom and drops to the bottom with a 90 degree elbow. Our yard is a bit unique as we had a large raised bed garden all along the back. The bog is in the raised area, which made for a natural waterfall. The bog flows into a small pooling area which then feeds the waterfall.
As for electricity - we had an outlet on the house near the pond, so we had our electrician just convert it from a two plug to a four plug outlet. The various cords are just buried a few inches underground from pond to outlet - maybe 10 feet or so. I just keep those cords in mind if I'm doing any digging. We have an extension cord from our pond less waterfall which got cut by a landscaper once. That's easy to replace. Cutting the cord on a pump? Not so easy to fix! Electricity is one thing I wouldn't suggest you fool with - it's worth paying to have it done right so no one gets hurt.
So many different ways to build a pond! You'll figure out what works best for you. One tip - with a very flat yard, you want to keep your profile low. Don't decide to build a six foot mounding waterfall in the middle of an Iowa backyard... we don't have many volcanoes here in the midwest! If you haven't already, check out The Ponddigger and Aquascape on YouTube - lots of great tips for building a natural looking pond in just about any setting!
We built our pond with a negative edge and an underground water storage - that's where our pump sits. So we don't have a skimmer per se, just a "pit" full of rocks and gravel that catches the debris as it's pulled over the side.
Our plumbing is all external and buried about a foot underground. It goes from the pump, all the way around one edge of the pond to the side of the bog, where it goes up and over the edge of the bog to the bottom and drops to the bottom with a 90 degree elbow. Our yard is a bit unique as we had a large raised bed garden all along the back. The bog is in the raised area, which made for a natural waterfall. The bog flows into a small pooling area which then feeds the waterfall.
As for electricity - we had an outlet on the house near the pond, so we had our electrician just convert it from a two plug to a four plug outlet. The various cords are just buried a few inches underground from pond to outlet - maybe 10 feet or so. I just keep those cords in mind if I'm doing any digging. We have an extension cord from our pond less waterfall which got cut by a landscaper once. That's easy to replace. Cutting the cord on a pump? Not so easy to fix! Electricity is one thing I wouldn't suggest you fool with - it's worth paying to have it done right so no one gets hurt.
So many different ways to build a pond! You'll figure out what works best for you. One tip - with a very flat yard, you want to keep your profile low. Don't decide to build a six foot mounding waterfall in the middle of an Iowa backyard... we don't have many volcanoes here in the midwest! If you haven't already, check out The Ponddigger and Aquascape on YouTube - lots of great tips for building a natural looking pond in just about any setting!
