How much does it cost to build a pond or lake?

Here are some numbers you can use for your pond or lake project. To move or excavate dirt to build or dig a pond, you can expect to pay roughly $2.50 per cubic yard of material dug out of the pond. Figure $1.50 — 3.50 per yard of material depending on the difficulty of excavation and costs specific to local market conditions. Very small ponds cost more because smaller equipment is required. Of course the volume of material to be moved will be entirely dictated by the habitat design. Because of this, we do not estimate without knowledge of the specific project. Lake and pond excavation costs can be lower in rural areas and significantly higher in more urban settings.

If there is one lesson to be learned from this website, it is this.

A pond is very much more than a hole in the ground that collects water. After calculating a rough pond excavation budget, now double the pond construction budget due to the cost of dredging and re-digging the pond in ten to twenty years or sooner due to a poor pond design. That is the usual fate of most ponds because the majority of ponds are dug in poor locations with no real design. After all that doubling of expense the pond will still suffer the same fate if a better plan is not employed. Paying for two low quality ponds is not a good investment. This is also the reason many people scour the internet looking for pond and lake restoration help. Ironically most of the online advice will point the would-be lake owner straight back to the same exact mistakes. Internet forums are infamous for perpetuating bad information from people with little experience. That same inexperience leads to omitting basic elements to a lake such as creating a tight seal in the lake/pond, or addressing pond siltation which is one of the top reasons for failure. When very low pond construction estimates are seen online they are most always coming from people inexperienced in building lakes and ponds. As we are often quoted. cheap advice, build it twice.&#169 It is a simple point to ponder. A good exercise before committing to anyone is to ask them how this pond or lake will look in fifty years. If they have difficulty answering, the answer may not be the right one. Not only will a poorly designed pond fail after a decade or two, they also require much more maintenance expense and headaches. These are basic reasons to invest in quality versus short-term expense. It is also a reason people invest in our services to inspect and evaluate waterfront and lake property before they purchase.

If the land needs to be cleared of trees and stumps, expect to pay at least several thousand dollars per acre for clearing plus disposal. Of course some sites include valuable timber which will reduce this estimate. Meadows become a more efficient pond location due to this factor and a minimal amount of leaf litter falling in the lake.

If soils and debris have to be removed from the site expect to pay several dollars per cubic yard to truck the soil to another location. It is always best to have a plan to use excavated soils somewhere near the lake or pond. Removing soils from a site can become very expensive. This is particularly true of more urban areas.

The most cost effective sites for pond construction often have gently sloping topography. Ideally, this would be in a low area, safe from flooding, with roughly ten feet of elevation difference between the sides and the bottom. This greatly reduces the volume of material to excavate. For instance, a one acre pond that averages ten feet deep will have a volume of 16,133 cubic yards. If you only need to excavate one-tenth of this to build a low dam, your excavation expense could drop from the $30,000 per acre range to the $8,000 range. Note that building a dam is more expensive per volume than simply excavating a basin. We further reduce excavation expense by designing habitat to perform better with less depth. Most ponds are dug too deep. To create high quality pond and lake habitats, there are significant additional expenses associated in the form of materials and detailed excavation.

Once the site is excavated, the new basin must be sealed unless the site is dug into a tight clay formation. Most sites require at least compacting existing clay soils, or if clay is not present then we need to augment the soil by importing quality clays or other sealants. Compacting a site costs several thousand dollars an acre. The cost of importing and applying sealants may range from $10,000 to $30,000 per acre depending on location and soil conditions. Installing synthetic pond liners cost even more than our estimated range.

Keep in mind these are a very basic examples. There are a number of technical issues that contribute to site selection. This is why we offer pond and lake property evaluation services along with design, construction and restoration services. These examples do not include the detail work that make our ponds, lakes and streams so valuable. They are simply estimates anyone would use for a basic body of water. Most of our projects include very scenic shorelines and recirculated streams along with the lake or pond. Clear water is very attractive, but the addition of a wildflower meadow and a spring creek elevate the financial and emotional value of a project to a higher level.

You will realize the value of professional design when you see how much can be saved during construction, and realize continued savings in maintenance and tremendous increase in life expectancy of the lake or pond. You will move less earth with our assistance. We are very strong in this niche due to our biological experience in combination with construction experience. You can start to plan the budget of a pond or lake with the figures we offer realizing the total cost cost per acre of water is very dependent on the geology and slope of the site, the price of materials (clay, soil, sand etc.) excavation expense and quality of habitat you desire. Our lake and pond property evaluation service becomes an excellent investment because of these potential costs. The right site is going to cost much less to build on when compared to most sites.

Annual maintenance expenses span a range of nearly zero to an excess of $2,000 per acre, depending on the quality of the design. The projects we design do not use any chemicals, mechanical management, or commercial bacterial products, so our clients enjoy long term savings along with the quality we offer. Poorly designed ponds require a continual investment in order to keep them clean. You may have noticed that we really don’t offer any pond maintenance service. We are too busy building quality projects that have little or no need for ongoing maintenance.

If you do not have a year around spring, stream or reliable clean surface runoff on your property, you will need to put in a well. Well drilling costs are best estimated by your local well drilling contractor. Since property without a stream or spring is generally much less expensive, it may be more cost effective to purchase dry ground and drill a well.

After the pond has been in place a year or two, the vegetation is established and healthy, and the fish are large and healthy, then the pond brings a significantly higher value to the property. You many want to talk to a local realtor regarding the value a high quality pond brings to property. We mention this under the construction cost heading because improved property value should be considered when evaluating pond construction costs.

It is our experience that water clarity, large fish size, high quality aesthetics and little or no maintenance requirement for a pond, will bring much more value than a larger, poorly built pond with weed problems, high maintenance expense and/or dirty water.

We just dug our pond. Can you make it perfect now?

Creating a high quality lake or pond begins with design. Yes we can improve your pond, but you can expect to have to drain the pond and make major modifications to what you have installed. Much of our business comes from redesigning and rebuilding new ponds that were not efficiently designed. If you are thinking of building a new stream, pond or lake, talk to us before you break ground.

How much does it cost to build a garden pond?

There is a very wide range of answers to this question depending upon the quality and size of the garden pond. The answers also depend on the project being a watergarden or an ornamental fish pond such as a koi pond. We will exclude the do-it-yourself improvised pond from this discussion since they tend to mirror the desired budget of the builder, but rarely reach the quality goals.

We have seen some ornamental fish ponds exceed $50,000 due to elaborate elements such as filtration and rock work. Remember, these are ponds measured in gallons instead of acres. Water garden ponds appear to range in the vicinity of $15,000 for ponds ranging around 150 to 200 square feet. These watergardens lack the cleansing power of most of the ornamental fish ponds, however.

Spring Creek Aquatic Concepts designs these small ponds as completely natural ponds that cost closer to the range expected for a water garden pond, but they have even more cleansing power than the ornamental fish ponds mentioned above. They prove that science trumps technological fixes. Of course Spring Creek ponds also look much more natural than virtually all water gardens and ornamental fish ponds. A Spring Creek ornamental pond also does not require constant or even frequent attention; they are all designed to maintain themselves.

How much does it cost to build a swimming pond?

For larger residential properties we offer natural swimming ponds for those interested in a natural alternative to a pool with the attributes of a water garden, ornamental fish pond and a beach. The cost of our swimming ponds are in line with the costs of one of our ornamental ponds if it were built to the same size and depth. We invite you to learn more on our swimming pond page. Because swimming ponds are usually deeper, they most often cost more than other landscape ponds or water features.

Is my pond leaking?

When evaluating a pond or lake that is reported as leaking, we start by looking at the circumstances of the site. The first thing we do is compare the evaporation rate of the area with the change in water elevation in the pond or lake. During the heat of summer, it is common to see evaporation rates of a half inch per day throughout arid areas of the Southwest United States. Less than a quarter inch of daily evaporation is common in more temperate climates. If your water supply is not contributing to the lake or pond and you are losing on the order of 15-17 inches (arid climate) or 7-9 inches (temperate climate) of water per month during summer, you may not need to even think about resealing the pond. An inch or two of seepage per month is usual even in a tightly sealed pond. This is included in these figures. By the way, we actually want a pond to leak a little since it helps rid the pond of excess nutrients which accumulate in the depths.

To test for leakage vs. evaporation, we suggest setting a bucket full of water next to the pond and protect it from animals by placing a screen over the bucket. Compare the water loss in the bucket with the water loss in the pond. The difference will tell you if you need to consider sealing the pond. Any water flowing into the pond will either need to be shut off or calculated into this comparison.

There is a very important exception to this technique: if your pond has a large area of emergent vegetation, then you need to consider the evapotranspiration rate in the plants. Even in Western Oregon, we can see vegetation use an inch of water per day via evapotranspiration, compared to less than 0.2 inches of daily evaporation during summer. If your pond has extensive shoreline and shallow water vegetation, this may be your leak. If a quarter of your pond is covered by emergent vegetation, then figure an additional quarter inch per day of evaporation since one-quarter of the pond may be evapotranspiring an inch per day. We have not researched all species of emergent vegetation so results will vary.

Testing for evapotranspiration in plants may be more involved than you want to get, but it is much less involved than trying to reseal a pond that does not need to be sealed.

Another source of leakage is the moist soil along the shores of the pond which is produced by capillary action. If the clay or synthetic liner does not extend above the capillary zone, the pond is going to continually send water out via its edge. This is usually fixed by extending the liner sufficiently high enough above the water surface elevation. Periodically check for moist soil along the shoreline during dry weather.

If this sounds like clay lined ponds are trickier to build than synthetic lined ponds, that may be true. On the other hand, clay is generally much cheaper than synthetics, plus clay produces much higher quality lakes and ponds when designed correctly. Over the life of the pond, quality construction in clay will result in a pond with less expense and maintenance than synthetic lined ponds and lakes, which do not cleanse their own nutrients without further design and/or equipment etc. Clay sealed ponds and lakes last for centuries while plastic pond liners last a couple decades.

With clay, it is important to utilize a contractor who has experience building clay lined ponds. We recently heard of a contractor who quipped that he has made a lot of money off people who had him build clay lined ponds. He says he makes the extra profit when he goes back in to line the pond with a synthetic liner. What this says to us is this particular contractor does not possess the required knowledge to build clay sealed ponds. If he had sufficient knowledge, he wouldn’t need to reseal the ponds. Be sure your pond contractor is qualified for the task before you hire them. We also help clients select the best contractor. Investing a few hundred dollars on a soils lab test is very good insurance for a lake or pond.

A qualifed lake or pond contractor is crucial if you intend to use commercial Bentonite clay. Bentonite is a very effective pond sealant in the right hands. We see way too many people try to use this material who have no concept of its requirements. We urge everyone to seek out a contractor who has been successful with Bentonite instead of trying to seal their own lake. Subtle design requirements exist in order to create an efficient seal with Bentonite.

Testing materials to seal a pond or lake

Historically ponds were usually built within a stream channel due to construction convenience. Those days are over for most situations now. While streams were an inexpensive source of ample water, more projects are now relying upon wells for their water. When water was abundant, few people concerned themselves with a tight seal. A good seal is more important now when considering the cost of pumping additional well water. We outline general methods of ensuring a proper seal in the following discussion.

We are often asked how to evaluate soils used to seal ponds and lakes; our approach is two tiered. The first thing we do is a very simple test, then if we need further research, we bring in a soils scientist or engineer to utilize techniques that improve the quality of marginal materials. We will outline the simple method here.

To quickly identify the best clay material, grasp a handful of moist earth in your hands and roll it into a ball shape. If the ball maintains its form when you drop it on the ground, it may contain sufficient clay. Take the ball and roll it between your hands to form a thin pencil shape. If this pencil shape of clay will bend before breaking, the clay is likely of sufficient quality to seal a pond. There are always exceptions, so move onto the next test.

Using something like a five-gallon bucket, drill several holes along the vertical edge near the bottom of the bucket. Holes of around 3/8th inch work well. Next, fill the bottom of the bucket with four inches of crushed gravel, such as 3/4-minus. On top of the gravel, place about six inches of what ever soil/clay type material you plan to use for the pond. Thoroughly compact this clay layer throughout the bucket, paying particular attention to the edge. Make sure the clay is somewhat moist. Moist enough to make a ball out of the material is about optimum. Now fill the bucket to the rim with water. Cover the bucket with an impervious surface such as plastic. Wait a couple days, then refill the bucket. The soil needs time to saturate with water. Cover the bucket once again. Now wait up to a week to see if the soil will hold water. Obviously you can check after the first day to see if the material failed. Our experience has been that if you lose less than an inch of water after a week in the bucket, you have good material. We don’t seem to get as good of compaction in a bucket as we do out in the lakes and ponds themselves. This is why we relax our expectations within the bucket.

If you are really interested in an acid test, create a small pond out of the materials you plan to use. Fill the pond and compare water elevation decline with a bucket of water placed in the shallows of the pond. Again, be sure to screen the top of the bucket to keep animals from drinking etc. Be aware the smaller pond needs to be close to the design depth of the pond habitat you plan to build.

Having a professional soils scientist or engineer test the quality of the clay is always a good idea before investing in pond and lake construction.

Invasive Plants

We offer information to encourage the use of native vegetation which does not tend to cause problems in well designed habitats. Review our Invasive Species page to learn about the most threatening plants across North America. We offer sources of appropriate native vegetation as well, on our Resources page. Our Myths page also discusses a few invasive species that are often mistaken for natives.

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