Pond Rehab in Texas: Deepening, Cleaning Out and Rebuilding an Old Stock Tank
The Short Answer A pond rehab is done dry. Once the water is down, a dozer and an excavator strip the silt and old growth out of the basin, cut the center deeper, reshape the banks to a consistent slope, rebuild the dam with a compacted clay core if it leaks, and seal the basin with bentonite if the soil needs it. It is priced like a new pond of the finished size, from our published price list, with the stripping added on. The half acre we rebuilt at Lockhart, taken from a leaking quarter acre at six feet to a half acre at ten feet and sealed, ran $20,000 to $22,000 over four days with a Cat D3. A patch that only seals or only deepens costs less, but on a pond that is both shallow and leaking a patch is usually money spent twice. We do not dredge. A pond with water in it is not something we work in, and anyone who tells you they can deepen a full pond from a barge is quoting a different, much more expensive kind of job. Everything on this page assumes the pond is drained, which mo...