Koi Pond Constuction

[The Pond Digger]

I ran across this master piece during a consultation just a few weeks ago. This KOI POND project is complete. Installed by the landscape contractor that did the entire backyard.

The Gentleman's neighbor knows alot about koi () so he suggested adding a UV, which is installed back by the pump, and removing the Bacti-twist in the Savio waterfall filter and replacing it with bio-balls.

Wouldn't you say, It is installations like this that give landscape contractors that build ponds a bad wrap? The pond is only a couple of months old and the customer wants to make improvements. Sad to say but it doesn't even pass for a water g%#&@!

I made all of the appropriate suggestions similar to what was talked about on the positively........a koi pond thread. This was back in late November. I asked him if he had a budget to make improvements. He figured he could spend a couple thousand on materials on the internet and then pay someone a grand or so to make it an exceptable KOI POND. He almost had a heart attack when I quoted him prices to rebuild.

Have at the photo for a learning experience. Look closely and disect the installation. Yes the white tupperware lid on the bottom left had side of the photo is part of the installation. This is a prime example of Ponds Gone Wrong.

Have fun..............

The Pond Digger

[Russell Peters]

Looks like a recirculating cess pool.

[kent wallace]

What, no details of the construction methods.

[koiczar]

Kent

What methods. A 10 year old could (probably did) build this "masterpiece"!

Mike

[Lomaponder]

Even with limited experience with the techniques in proper pond construction, I know when I've seen flaws in a pond's design.

My question at this point is: The owner actually allow the builder to sign off of this..... thing?

LP

[MATTHEW]

I love the exposed pvc pipe and the exposed liner. It looks like another garden center disaster to me......I guess the reality of it is with a little research and a few more bucks it might be decent, but the shoty work has to go

[MCA]

looks like poor design and implementation. Very sad for the owner.

I just don't get it that folks plan to hand over thousands for a pond seem to do ZERO research before hand...and no supervision during the project.

Maybe it takes a BAD first pond to make most of us wake up.

What was Waddy's line....the cheapest pond is the one you build correctly the first time.

[The Pond Digger]

Quote: Originally Posted by Russell Peters Looks like a recirculating cess pool.

From dictionary.com -

cesspool
1671, the first element perhaps an alteration of cistern (q.v.); or the whole may be an alteration of suspiral (c.1400), "drainpipe," from O.Fr. souspirail "a vent, air hole," from souspirer "breathe," from L. suspirare "breathe deep." Meaning extended to "tank at the end of the pipe," which led to folk etymology change in final syllable. Alternate etymologies: It. cesso "privy," from L. secessus "place of retirement" (in L.L. "privy, drain"); dial. suspool, from suss, soss "puddle;" or cess "a bog on the banks of a tidal river."

The Pond Digger

[The Pond Digger]

Quote: Originally Posted by kent wallace What, no details of the construction methods.

- 2 to 2 1/2 feet deep. Not a vertical excavation and not shelved excavation either.
- liner installation (Obviously!)
- The hole was dug. The perimeter around the top of the pond was lined with left over pavers from the patio to elevate the edge of the pond just slightly.
-Savio waterfall filter used for both mechanical and biological
-Small Sequence pump
-Intake from the pump is 2" PVC stubbed into the center of the pond, on top of the liner, with 1/4" holes drilled all over the place.
-If you look closely in the center of the photo just to the right of where the suction pipe from the pump enters the pond you will see a small circle of foam/bubbles. That is the floating skimmer that is tee'ed off the suction line that crosses the bottom of the pond
-Some unknown brand (to me) UV is plumbed in between the pump and the Savio waterfall filter. His friend or neighbor that know Koi Pond Construction installed it for him after the landscaper was gone.
-Aerator is plumbed to the far right of the pond.
-The slope behind the property is watered heavily and constantly sends water underneath the pond. Under the white tupperware lid is an 8" pipe installed vertically as a vault. It is connected to a small gravel pit that leads to the underside of the pond. When the pipe fills with water a sump pump with an on/off float device actuates and sends the excess water to the drain system which exhausts to the gutters in front of the home.
-Crushed stone gravel was scattered through out the UPPER edges of the pond.
-The straggling white pipe at the top of the picture was a loose pipe that the homeowner was instructed to use if he ever wanted to change water. All he has to do is unplumb the pump, reprime it and pump water onto the property behind him that inturn would run under his pond and then be pumped to his gutter in the front of his house from the vault under the white tupperware.

The Pond Digger

[The Pond Digger]

Quote: Originally Posted by Lomaponder Even with limited experience with the techniques in proper pond construction, I know when I've seen flaws in a pond's design. My question at this point is: The owner actually allow the builder to sign off of this..... thing? LP

Amazing as it seems, I see homeowners take hits like this more often than I would like to admit. The rest of the landscape on this particular project was not done half bad so the homeowner just sucked it up and decided to try and live with it or was afraid of a potential confrontation with the contractor! Sad but true!

I have many more examples of projects just like this. Some projects that were 6500 dollar pond installations that turned into 1500 dollar demolition jobs and back into 8000 dollar rebuilds. Homeowner sucked it up and took the hit.

Tiny pondless waterfall systems for 5500 that took the contractor 30 days to build. Small claims court settled for 5000 returned dollars for the project to be ripped out and rebuilt professionally.

The saddest one I have come across was a wonderful couple in the Temecula area where a company took 50,000 for work completed that was disaster! Electrical pipes filled with water. Pillars for decks that damaged liner making repairs near impossible. Gastly waterfall construction and on and on! The homeowner stopped paying draws out to the company. By the way the pond was already 16k over budget and the company kept coming at them with change orders..............

The homeowners were going to just fill the pond it and take the hit until the construction company had the nerve threaten puting a lien on the home and that is when the homeowner decided they needed to fight back! Court battle! Nasty, nasty stuff but the fact remains the homeowner was just going to suck it up!

The Pond Digger