Monte's upper pond build.

[montwila]

Last year while redoing the lower pond. Twila said she did not want her yard torn up AGAIN next summer. "If you are going to do another pond you had better do it now". Talk about being given a license!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was always going to have an upper pond. Originally it was going to be a bog filter, water garden or maybe a place for small fish to grow up without competeinng with the bigger fish I had adopted. It would join the lower pond by water fall. Then I ran across Koiphen and that has changed my perspective as many here have discovered.

The next design was a large double lobed/peanut design. It would be a liner pond with two bottom drains. Approx 27' long and each lobe of the peanut about 10' and 12' respectively. The edges would start at 5' and the BD's would be 7' in depth. Still joining the lower pond by water fall. However a completely diffrent filtration system so the two ponds could be separated by lowering the water level in the upper pond. This would be accomplished by having the water being recirculated from the lower pond to the upper pond simply return to the lower pond and allowing the waterfall to go dry.

Plans change.............still have the unused liner as mentioned earlier this spring in my other threads. Let's get this project started.

[montwila]

This is where the upper pond will go left to right as we are looking at it. Both the trees in the foreground will be removed opening up the area for excavation. The water fall will be where the weir fall is now and connect the two ponds.

It appears my virus protection is not letting me attach the photo's. So I will try another time to get this thread going.

Maybe this will work now.

[montwila]

A few shots of the filter pit which is covered in another thread.

[montwila]

After the light work was done..................

[montwila]

...............it was time to bring in the real excavator.

[montwila]

Almost there!

[montwila]

At the risk of repeating myself..............
The original plan was a double toilet bowl design. However at 27' in length and only two bottom drains. The bottom would have needed a very strong contour and a whole lot of fishy swishy motion to be kept clean. Or I would be doing a whole lot of sweeping.

[montwila]

The area near the blue ladder actually did have a previous water line. About 18" of the wall collapsed during excavation giving me an almost perfect rectanguler hole with very little personality.


A pond needs personality I.M.H.O.!

[montwila]

After serious debate with my two on-site supervisor's.

Also several phone calls to others here on KP.

A stream flow or linier flow design was settled upon.

[montwila]

I began pouring a footing and stacking block. This was with the knowledge that I would have some backfilling to do.

Both supervisors are happy with the progress. (Thunders ears are visible).

[montwila]

Long about this time.............. one of my coworkers says "a friend of his does ponds and pools"................. Now where was he?

I have been talking about this project for the last two months! He just now remembers?

Just spit balling over the phone. I talked to the friend of the coworker. He said gunite is not as expensive as most people think. Really!
He sounded like we might be in the same ballpark so a site visit was schedualed.

He gave me a quote for placing the rebar and gunite with a cement trowel finish.
We were in the same ballpark.

So six pallets of block had to go bback to HD. Thank goodness the other four pallets had not arrived yet.

[kdh]

My back hurts just looking at it. Thanks for the picks. It looks like fun.
The supervisors on sight. offered a pension or 401 plan/health benefits?

[montwila]

To acheive the slope for the "new" linier flow design. I had to put about 15 yards of material back in the hole. I used crushed concrete and sand, alternated and compacted.

This brought the shallow end up to about 5'.

The blue ladder is a 6' and the yellow is 7' for refrences in these photos.

[montwila]

This is an interesting perspective (IMHO).

The bottom drain lines and drains are in the foreground.
Domestic water, waste line from the filter pit in the mid shot.
TPR's and mid water returns on the far end.

All several feet below 6000 gallons of water a foot away on the left with 25 fish in it.

Note the temporary tank in previous shots are removed. So all the fish are combined for the first time. Probably the reason for all the foam.

[montwila]

Another shot of "The Great Wall".

It has almost three yards of concrete in addition to stacked block. Please see my lower pond redo thread for more pictures. It truly is monolithic!

Back to this build.

[montwila]

Here "The Great Wall" is at "finished" height. The deal with the friend of the coworker............. simply rebar and mud. I have to form the hole and provide the plumbinng and its placement.

The yellow ladder in this shot as you can see is a 16' and is 10' 4" bedded as seen here. The blue ladder is still 6'.

The forms for thhe gunit are simple. I used 1/4" hard board overlapped and screwed together.

[montwila]

Another couple of perspective shots.

The top of the pond is set by the forms.
Still glueing and hot bending the plumbing.
French drain is in place.
Setting the skimmers.
Domestic water supply to the back of the property.

To the right of the blue ladder is:
domestic water, waste line, mid pond TPR and another French drain.

[montwila]

On rebar day: It was the first time the coworkers friend actually saw the finished hole.

His only comment was "It got bigger"...............

His original bid was a set amount just for ball parking. The "new" design added the personality I felt was needed. The contractor switched to a materials bid which is a set price based on the amount of concrete that is shot. Not the actual time spent on the job.

[montwila]

Supervisor #1 (Thunder) was very unsure of this whole thing. He called in his boss. The Head Supervisor.

[montwila]

Ther head supervisor having been called out to the job site was not happy..............