[Mark Oomkes]

I am working on pricing for 'lining' a pond with some large Pennsylvania Fieldstone slabs. This is what my supplier calls them, they are 3-4' long, about 2' deep and anywhere's from 6-18" thick. I could use some help with this, as this is the first time I have attempted anything like this. I know, I should do my own pond first, but time isn't going to allow.

The pond is already there, almost circular, it's about 30' across roughly. We plan on excavating it out to make it bigger--as it's about 200' from the house and not real visible--spring fed, and currently surrounded by small fieldstones. They also have a pond liner on the low end to keep the water at a relatively constant height. The pond also sits in quite a hole to begin with, that is, it is quite low. They just spend $12K on a fountain and want to be able to enjoy the pond by being able to see more of it. The excavation isn't an issue, I'll sub that to an excavator, but the rest is a little.

I don't mind learning as I'm going, but I don't want to lose my butt on this project either. So if anyone could help out with pointers, shortcuts, etc, that would be great. A couple questions that come to mind:

Do you use a base for the ledge\wall rock when installing? The pond has been there for about 10 years, so there shouldn't be too much settling except for where the extension will occur. Soil is quite sandy, it used to be a sand\gravel pit.

What do you use to set these rocks? Mini-X with thumb? The way this pond sits, I think I would over-extend the lifting capacity quite quickly. Any other suggestions? They should be around 1000-1500#'s each.

How do you determine the amount of rock needed?

Am I in over my head and should I run away?

Thanks for any advice.

[Stonehenge]

I'm wondering how the things keeps water in it, if only part has a liner and it's sandy soil.

Does the spring feed a stream that fills the pond, or does the water gurgle up from somewhere in the pond? If it's the latter, you'll have a heckuva time trying to excavate the sand without the walls of the excavation caving in on you. You may need to do some involved de-watering before you can excavate.

Placing the stones is easy enough - get an excavator with the capacity to lift the stones you'll place, then just use straps rated to handle that load. Sounds hard but it really isn't.

As for how much stone, that's a simple equation. First, you need to find out the density of your stone in weight per volume (150 pounds per cubic foot, for example). You've already mentioned how big the average stone is - turn those measurements into measurements for the entire wall, and convert that into cubic feet of stone. The multiply that by the density of the stone, and you have your weight needed.

Of everything that's going on there, the liner and it being spring-fed seem odd, and the sandy soils with a partial liner have me scratching my head a bit.

The pic linked below is us strapping a 5,000 pound stone for a waterfall.

[TrickyDick]

Never fails to amaze me when I see a machine working at an angle like that. So cool...

[dan deutekom]

I can't believe that machine isn't making a nose dive with that load and angle

[Stonehenge]

It did a couple times through the build.

It was a good thing I brought extra underwear to that project.

Did a couple uncontrolled slides down into the pond, too. The bucket did a nice job of grabbing onto firm ground at the top of the pond to pull me back out.

[Mark Oomkes]

Thanks for the advice Jeff. However, you didn't answer the question about being in over my head.

As for the pond and the spring keeps the level fairly constant. They also have a couple downspout drains that empty into it, but that doesn't really affect the level much. They dug it closer to the house, bermed\dammed it up, but left a spillway that leads to a ditch that leads to a fairly large lake.

I'm far from a water expert, but it has worked for them for 9 years, the way they have it now, they just want to be able to enjoy the pond\view\fountain from their house more, and the main option is enlarging it because of the distance from the house. I'm going to meet with my excavator sub to see what he thinks about enlarging it, probably end up using his crane with thumb for rock placement due to rock size and reach.