Wall support

[aboston]

Hello all!

My wife and I decided to build a pond in our backyard in the next few months that will be approx 5' deep. I live in a valley and was wondering if I need to build some sort of retaining wall to shore up the sides. On second thought, I am guessing the water pressure in the hole will be sufficient, but I want to only have to do this once!

I was also going to stack rock on the entire wall of the pond because our dog will most definately jump in until we can break her of it, and I want the liner protected. So if I had to build a retaining wall using concrete blocks, then lay the underlayment and liner, and then large rocks on the top, I am concerned about the damage risk to the rubber.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks
Al

 

[Big Red]

I built my pond on a slope as well. I absolutely suggest building a retaining wall. I used simple cinder block with sand and dirt dumped inside. I went up 4 feet from the bottom of the pond on the slope side. Underlayer and pond liner on top, followed by stone for aestetics. Just try to keep sharp points off of the liner and you will be fine.

 

[addy1]

If you slope your walls, you can do it without a retaining wall. Both of my ponds are 4-5 feet deep, one has straight down sides, (hard pan arizona soil) this new one is maryland clay and shale, but I sloped the sides here maybe 70 degrees or so. Our pond is built into a hill, the downhill side is a dirt berm.

If your soil is sandy for sure do a retaining wall. Make sure you don't have run off into the pond.

I always put extra liner or underlayment beneath any heavy rocks, that are on the liner.