Cost for 5 acre pond

[Chase This!]

probably close to 80-90K

Correct.

[Chase This!]

We have a 10 acre lake. No pond here (BoB). 😝 We dammed off half, drained it and dug deeper. Just taking it 5ft deeper on average was a $60k job. And we were dealing with nasty gumbo mud. Was not easy to work with.

[SCHC]

About 15yrs ago we enlarged a 1.5 acre pond to 10 acres. Had our own D7, D6 and self loading scraper. Spent about 40 in fuel, repairs and hired another dozer operator to do it. I would say 50 or more depending on terrain, soil type, contours and how deep. Big ponds will increase your land value so it may be a good expense in the long run.

[Farmdog]

5 spots then…7 tops or I’ll dig it myself

[DosToros]

Six figures.

[camoclad]

How did folks make ponds, tanks, lakes, pools and puddles back in da day?

Just listened to a Bear Grease podcast on the Mississippi and they basically built the first levee system from st. Louis to New Orleans in the 1800s! Just do whatever they did. Haha

[gonehuntin]

Stock Tank


Stock Tank



Fishing Pond

[Burntorange Bowhunter]

wow - so you get all worked up and ruined YOUR day over whether someone says "pond" or "tank"?? What a crazy world we live in

No. Lol.

It's fun to jack with people.

[Chase This!]

No. Lol.

It's fun to jack with people.

Some of these guys would need to seek therapy if they participated in the college football thread. 🤣

[armadillophil]

Unless the site is perfect you will spend six figures easy for 5 acres. It’s been my observation that when someone says they have a 3 acre pond it really is 3/4 of an acre. A 5 acre pond is good size and is not cheap. Good luck.

[kyle1974]

good friend of mine is doing a 15 ish acre tank, and after doing the math on dirt volumes to be removed (and add about 30-50% for loose vs in place), it was cheaper to buy a used dozer and scraper along with a guy to run them for several months.

most D6+ and larger along with excavators/loaders capable of doing what you want done are going to be $125+ an hour to run. when you start looking at how many yards of material needs to be moved, either for the dam, or off location, and the fact a dump truck is going to haul 20 yards at a time.. it's a whole lot of machine hours!

I've never paid for one, but I did work for a land clearing company back in college... when tanks are acres in size, you are talking weeks and weeks of work for multiple machines.

what finally made me jump into school full time was running a self loading scraper for the night shift for about 2 weeks straight down in Hebronville, with one of the dozer operators being drunk off his *** every night! that's another thread. LOL

and after 2 weeks, I didn't even see the first half of the project or the last several weeks!

[Playa]

Call your county USDA-NRCS office and talk to either a range specialist, ag engineer, or district conservationist. They know who's legit and more importantly they know who the clown shows are.

They may also have grants available. When we dug ours 20 years ago, they determined our small pond wasn’t a stable water source for livestock and wildlife and gave us a grant for a good chunk of it.

and that small pond they dammed insufficient ain’t dried up once, not even during the 2011 drought or since

[katyhighpockets]

Just finished building a 1 acre tank that incorporated the run off from 2 creeks. Added spillway. Dug test holes to verify pond placement and depth. We were able to go to 17' deep and had good clay.. rained twice since and it's fu so preparing to add bait fish.. cost with test holes was 35,000

PM with questions

[BrianL]

Keep in mind that the cheapest way to build a 5, 10 ,15 acre lake is to buy property that fits the size body of water you want to build. Topography is the biggest concern in determining what size lake you property can support, and how much dirt has to be moved, and how much dirt it will take to build the dam. One person might be able to build a 15 acre lake for the price as someone else to build a 3 acre lake. Depends on the lay of the land.

[KactusKiller]

10K plus if done right

I'd love to meet this pond digger!