Filling in a large pond - HALP!

Supermop

Hi all,

I have a large, shelved pond in my garden, it's 24ft x 18ft and 6ft deep at the maximum dimensions, but the main pond area is probably 18ft x 12ft and 4ft deep. It's inconvenient and takes up most of the rear garden so I would like it draining, filling in and turfing to make a grassy usable area instead.

I would like to keep costs as low as possible and don't mind getting my hands dirty, but being practical I'm fairly feeble and would struggle to do a lot of hardcore manual labour myself

I'd really appreciate if someone could give me an idea of what I need to do, timeframe and a rough cost idea as I haven't a clue and am struggling financially so can't really afford to be extravagant with spending at the moment.

Thanks! x

Hintza

I would get a digger in and break up the pond (to stop you having a bog where it was). You might have to consider drainage (but I think I would leave that at this stage).

Then get some infill/rubble/type 1 fill up and leave space for top soil since it is going to be lawn you won't need too much.

The real question is can you get diggers and lorries in to the garden or are you going to be barrowing it in?

Supermop

Hintza wrote: »

I would get a digger in and break up the pond (to stop you having a bog where it was). You might have to consider drainage (but I think I would leave that at this stage).

Then get some infill/rubble/type 1 fill up and leave space for top soil since it is going to be lawn you won't need too much.

The real question is can you get diggers and lorries in to the garden or are you going to be barrowing it in?

Thanks Hintza, I'm afraid it's going to be a case of wheelbarrows. Unfortunately there's no vehicular access to the rear of the property.

I'm also wondering how to go about drainage -- the pond is about 4 ft from the house so am very loathe to stick a fork in and let it drain naturally! Am thinking a few hours' graft with buckets!

Itismehonest

How is the pond fed & how does it drain?
If left alone (& with no rainfall) does it completely dry up?

hc25036

It will take days to empty with buckets! Try to borrow or hire a submersible pump or try to rig up a siphon if you have a lower point you can drain to. We have 2 smaller ponds that we dug ourselves - total probably about half the size of yours. Don't underestimate the work involved! We dumped all the soil at the end of our garden, and about 10 years later had to remove it to level out for a large shed. We reckon we shifted more than 3 tonnes of soil....