Emily's Pond Build Log

Just a quick update here. I called the utility companies (well, technically the Georgia 811 line, which calls the utilities for me), and we got our dig ticket, which is good through November 4. We are planning to start digging the weekend of October 30. Perhaps earlier than that, but only if we have time in the evenings after work. Odds are we'll end up extending the dig ticket since I think it's going to take more than weekend to dig the pond, but we'll see how it goes. I've got a volunteer or two that are supposed to help (we'll see if they do though), and I'm hoping we can make good progress on it. Right now though I'm just hoping that the utility companies don't have anything in my spot. I'm 99% sure that they don't, but I won't know 100% until Tuesday (they have to mark by Tuesday).

I did want to ask - does anyone recommend a specific website or place to purchase the EPDM liner? I've done some browsing on the net and the prices are all over the place. I'm not going to purchase until after we dig, but I'm estimating that we will need a 20' x 25' liner right now and I'm finding prices of anywhere from $200 (plus $100 shipping) to $400 (plus $150 shipping), and everywhere in between. Does this seem right? And if so, why would one be half the price of the other? They are all described as 45 mil EPDM pond liners with the 20 year warranty on them, so I don't see any obvious differences in the liners, just the prices. Any thoughts there? Or anyone have a good experience they want to share with where they bought their liner? Thanks much!

3 out of 4 of the utilities have responded thus far with "no conflict" (yay!). Just waiting on AT&T to respond, and I am sure there is no AT&T line in our back yard. So hopefully we will get the "all clear" very shortly.

Wanted also to bump for the EPDM liner question I had above. Anyone?

Thanks Lenny! I will definitely check those out! We are not yet ready to buy the liner. I want to get it all dug first and make sure of the measurements first, but the ball-park size that I'm guessing at right now is the 20' x 25'. So we'll see once the dig is finished.

Started Digging!!

Yesterday we had some time so we started digging the pond. Mostly we're just working on removing the grass and top-soil at this point. The dig right now is ONLY on the parts that will be deep (3'-4'). We are leaving the plant ledge and the stairs section alone for now since we'll need to do a bit of grading to level it all out. So the pics look a little funny, plus there's a section of grass still in the middle that hasn't been removed yet - it got dark and the mosquitoes came out so we quit for the night before we ended up with too many bites. Not sure if we will dig at all tonight - been raining all day, and it's probably all just mud at this point. We'll see how it is later though. We have a couple helpers scheduled to come this Saturday for more digging, so hopefully we'll have the majority of that completed this weekend.

Pics below:

The rounded section on the bottom left corner of this is the stairs:


Stairs on the bottom right in this pic:


Two of our helpers in the background here (Mimi & Gabby). A view from the opposite side of the pond - stairs in this pic would be top right (where Gabby is standing in fact). You can see the hose is about 1' away from where we are digging. That is the plant shelf between the hose and the currently dug area:


View from a bit further away:

That's why I bribed strong helpers from work to come dig next weekend. I'm paying them in food and gatorade. And they all willingly said yes, so hopefully they can make some magic.

I am hoping to get a lot of it done before they get here so there won't be as much to do. The leveling and the plant shelf and all that we will do ourselves over the next few weeks or so, but I want to get the majority of it dug. Our dig ticket w/ the state expires Nov 4, so that's our goal for finishing the actual digging portion, although we can renew it if we need to. We'll see.

No updates yet. It has been raining all week. But it is supposed to clear up for the rest of the week so we are still planning on our digging party saturday.

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