Indianapolis, IN Pond Build with a Blue Eco RDF #2 (Geist Reservoir)

[Russell Peters]

I leave on Wednesday August 31st to go back to Indiana for a second pond build. It will be similar to the first build, as it is using most of the forms from the first build, but there will be no radius wall in it and we are including a filter pit in the monolithic pour. This is the area the pond will be built.

[Russell Peters]

The area has been checked for utilities.

[Russell Peters]

This blue tarp has all of the forms from the prior build under it and the new materials are next to it.

[Russell Peters]

Everything is protected and ready.

[Russell Peters]

Day 1

I decided to do the excavation on this build myself as I have an account with HERC equipment rental. The excavator and Bobcat arrived right on time.

[Russell Peters]

The first thing to do was to set up the layout and elevations. Coming off of the deck will be the filter pit which will be covered by a deck extension. I needed to figure out how deep the finished floor of the pit was and I used this wall to square off the pond to the existing deck. While I was doing that I had my Motley crew unbundle the existing forms and lay the out for installation.

[Russell Peters]

The next step was to install the side wall of the pond closest to the house. Unlike the other Indy build the top of the pond is only going to be 6" above grade at the highest point in the yard. I am still using the 30" tall outer forms, as that gives strength for the pour, so I had to use the excavator to dig out an 18" wide channel at the right location.

[Russell Peters]

The filter pit is wider than the pond so, instead of putting up perimeter forms first, I decided it would be best to dig it out first. It was a good choice as we ran into an extreme number of roots. The piles of roots came out of a 6' by 9' area.

[Russell Peters]

We did get about 1/2 of the pit area dug to depth and cleaned up.

[Russell Peters]

Of course, all of this work created quite a bit of mess...