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

[kdh]

Thanks for the pond build journey and pics. Really enjoy this stuff. Looking forward to filter build.
However
This was on your doitsu goshiki thread. Your Quote: You might need your hat for hole digging..
But your using a bobcat ,excavator,shovel?

[Russell Peters]

Thanks for the pond build journey and pics. Really enjoy this stuff. Looking forward to filter build.
However
This was on your doitsu goshiki thread. Your Quote: You might need your hat for hole digging..
But your using a bobcat ,excavator,shovel?

I'll be posting the rest today...

[Russell Peters]

The initial rain lasted for about 45 minutes and it was light for most of that time. I think it rained hard for about 5 or 6 minutes. Here are some pictures taken after the initial rain.

[Russell Peters]

I left the job for a while to pick up some materials and the rain really started coming down. I use the Accu Weather app to show what is coming and it does it in a 2 hour cycle. Red and orange represent some very heavy rain.

[Russell Peters]

When I got back to the job the tarps were doing the job very well. I lifted up one corner and it was bone dry. There were a couple of spots where the tarps were holding water so I changed the drainage a little bit. Take a look at the water level in the bottom of the pond.

[Russell Peters]

Today did turn out to be dry all day so I was able to work on squaring off the filter pit area, grading the floor and I installed all of the perimeter forms including the cut out for the steps into the pit. I installed the rebar I had on hand as well but need to pick up more to finish it.

[Russell Peters]

We had a lot of rain today so I measured the inside of the filter pit area so I could make all of the inner forms. We are going to have 4 or 5 days without rain so I should be able to get these in tomorrow. Some of the forms are entirely new and some of them were made from materials from the last pour.

[Russell Peters]

During a break in the rain today I put in another 20 pieces of rebar. It got pretty messy, with all of the mud, but it is about 2/3's done. You have to look closely, in the first picture to find the rebar as it is covered in mud.

[Russell Peters]

I got a slow start because of the mud and the fact we had over dug the area that the common wall, between the pond and the filter pit, goes. The system I use counts on having some solid ground to use stakes to hold up the forms. With the ground being soft the first form I set just wanted to sink, even with stakes, so I had to come up with an alternate plan. In the first picture I drew five black lines to some 2x4's on top of the forms. These are what is actually holding the back wall up. In the second picture you can see I made a 'T' out of two short 2x4's and they are attached to the inner form at the locations shown by the arrows. In the third picture you can see that the panel on the far right has no stakes on the bottom holding it up. I will put stakes in later as that will help keep the wall from kicking out when it is filled with concrete.

[Russell Peters]

Here are a couple of more pictures of the 'T's' and the wall.