You should put a flag stake at all of the spots you seeking signs of leakage too. This will also help in monitoring improvement and also will show if any new spots show up. I enjoy all of your videos. Thanks
I've got an old pond that is not leaking, but in Texas with no rain, the water evaporates quickly. Was down almost 3 feet from early last summer, but with one good rain, it's back up 18 inches. I've got fish in the pond, so was very worried I would lose them if we didn't get some rain. Feeling much better now, but still need another 18 inches before summer. Best of luck with the snot!
@ Steve Hennesssy I Highly recommend adding aeration to your pond. I have a 1/2-acre pond built in 1992. The summer of 2020 I added aerators from Peak o2 pond aeration. The pond now looks awesome. And less worry during droughts and low water levels. I assume the aerators keep the water oxygen level up for the fish. Also, my pond drops 2-3 foot every summer. And knock-on wood. Never have had any fish die from low water. The aerators also make the muck in the bottom decompose quickly. Same idea as a septic tank aerator. Which the peak o2 pump I have is near identical to my septic aerator pump. They are designed to run 24/7.
I like the idea someone else commented here. Flag the wet spots on the back side and see if the go away or if more show up. Great way to tell if it is working! I also think evaporation could be a major contributor, your wet spots really are not running water but you do have standing water down lower in the swampy area which would indicate it is leaking at the bottom… either way, keep data on it and it will help solve the problems. Hope it all eventually works out for you!
Great product Adam! I am glad you got a little on the shore. When it rains hopefully it will wash it to where it needs to go. Great job! All the best to you & yours!
Interesting, so what I am hearing is before the finish add some type of sealant to start with to prevent this from happening at the start and for peace of mind on the finial construction of the pound. Still recommend a wind powered aeration system.
We had a leak in our pond and was going to try this same product. At one point in August, we lost 20 inches of water in our new pond. I was able to pump water from another near by pond to keep the freshly compacted dirt wet, after weeks of pumping, every chance I had, it started holding water! We were very upset to say the least when the pond was almost full then started draining so I understand what you're going through, I hope this works and you never need to look back on leak problems!
My GrandPappy didn't say much, but often said "Do it right or do it twice". I am not a pond builder and I am not a construction worker. All my 'pond building knowledge' and I use that phrase lightly comes from watching Chris on LetsDig18. I came to your channel only recently and saw a bit on your pond dam construction and several times thought 'That's not what Chris would do'. Now you are trying to fix a problem that should not have occurred and you found a 'cure' that someone else had luck with. Rather than use that product you found a cheaper easier to use product. I hope it works. I would be reluctant to allow my kids in a pond in which 15 gallons of slimy gunk was spread. Again, I hope it works, but if not you may have to tear down the whole dam and do it right. Don't try to fix sections because you will never get them all, the work is harder to do in sections, and the result will not be as good. What is downstream if the dam fails? At times like this I remember GrandPappy saying "Hey kid, grab me another Pabst.
I had very much same thoughts, i've watched tons of Chris' videos. His pond building and fixing skills are awesome. I think some day this dam is gonna bust out badly, that slime is not gonna solve this, I'm afraid.
The struggle is real....we are experiencing something very similar. We were considering SoilFloc, but this week, we found Damit (apparently you did too) and we're going to put 10 pails on order. It will be interesting to see our results and yours. We will be watching. B&D
Another viewer strongly recommended using a respirator during the distribution of the powder… Can you even imagine that goo in your lungs! Easily could be a life ending event!!! So be sure to stay safe when you spread yours…. And good luck!!!
@@AdamsMom921 Shalex has their own YT channel and several videos and they don't use any PPE. Alabama Bass wore full bio-chemical suit! We've got boxes of N95s to use and probably wear goggles too. We'll probably use a jon boat and an electric spreader but waiting for rains to get our leaky pond a little fuller first!!
Damit is a great product… highly recommend. Have about a 4 acre pond and fixed a large leak a few years ago… hasn’t leaked since. Bentonite clay also has worked extremely well
Adam I love your videos man. We are going to be building a pond in a few months. Seeing everything you are doing helps me plan. Not everything works out perfect, but you do a great job of not letting things get the best of you and finding a solution. As we embark on our pond build I appreciate you taking time on the not so perfect things, because this could also happen to us. Keep up the content man, I’m so glad I found your channel. I also love Doug. He seems to have a ton of knowledge and a great attitude. You are a great combo!
That's a frustrating issue Adam. You may be dealing with a couple loss issues. 1.) Through the disturbed earthen areas of dam that you built. Even with compaction the soil type or mixture may not be offering the sealing properties. 2.) Through the bottom of the pond. Do you recall if you hit any gravel base or otherwise as you excavated? A seam of gravel right below could be a loss area. I hope the polymer mix works. I helped put bentonite in a pond once. It did the job...but it was done when it was dry (spread and tilled in). It also required a LOT of material. Good luck! It's a nice looking pond.
You may have run into a vein of porous material when excavating as 2.5 feet of loss seems more than those seepage damp spots on the back side of the dam. Check way down away from your dam down by the blueberries you may find more water! Ponds rise and fall, no worries. Dennis, Welches pond Oregon
I'll be impressed if that stuff works. I've been building floodable duck hunting impoundments and have learned first hand how tough it is to get dams/berms to seal. It's not easy. Hope this works for you!
Hi years ago in Wales if there was a pond leaking they used to wash sheep in the ponds and the wool wold seep in to the leaks and sort it out you need wool !!
I’ve done research on this product in the past and I believe it will work perfectly well for your issue. From what I found it had a lifespan of 5-6 years before it starts to change / transition to water and carbon dioxide as it breaks down. By then your soil/clay will have compacted naturally to seal the leaks. Thanks for the content !
Maybe load up a sono-tube with tanerite, Dump in a bucket of the powder on top, and use a cannon technique to make a cloud/dusting over the pond.... Mark Rober style -- LOL
Good lord. More pond drama! Gotta stay subscribed just to rubberneck at this continual multi-car pile up!! 🤣 When you went around and showed all the leaks…. Wow. That’s a lot of leaks. Crazy. I hope for your sake the DAMIT works!!
Great video. Thanks for keeping us posted with all the successes and failures. If you’re worried about leakage further up the dam wall, you could try spreading that stuff on the dry land and, as the water level increases, it’ll activate and find the holes as it fills. That way you should get a pretty even distribution. My 2 cents. Keep up the great work.👍 PS I’m in agreement with many of these posts about a mask and eye protection while applying it. Lungs are wet and that stuff would be brutal expanding and becoming sticky in your chest. No toxic doesn’t mean it can’t kill ya! A bullet can be non toxic too! 🤣
I had my small pond dug out from flat ground in my field. I needed some fill dirt and top soil anyway so I hired the dozer guy to go ahead and build a pond. about 18 inches down he began to dig up those orange clay tiles that a previous owner had put in many years before to help with drainage. Even after getting as much of them out as we could, eventually when the pond filled up it developed seep tunnels that found their way to tile lines that were elsewhere. Even though the pond stays full in wet weather, it will eventually leak down to the depth of those tiles. I would probably use something like Dam-it but it would probably kill the fish that the grandkids like to catch.
Try using gypsum, I used damit and it helped but alot of it eventually floats to the top and it gets kinda ugly. I added gypsum ( really cheap at garden stores ) about 10 lbs per 15000 gallons and it really helped and it also clarifies the water
That looks like a good plan and I really think that it is a better product than Bama pond build job. I just hope that you have very good luck with the product. The idea of only using one product versus having to product that requires two items to be blended.
Bummer. Been there. You are gonna need a box blade and a sheepsfoot roller. They didn't do the lifts for the dam properly. Starting at the toe and working up to the top, terrace and compact, terrace and compact. then down the inside of the dam as far as you can. By then you should be able to determine if you are bottom leaking. Bentonite clay, I would think six totes, two in the bottom and the rest up the inside face. I would keep the terraces in the backside for the next five years- they will help you chase the leaks. Seem a shame you would need it with such awesome material, but GCL on the dam would fit it too.
Not being the bearer of Bad News, but we have used that Damit Product and "Yes" it might show positive results for a few weeks, eventually it will fold and not hold. Another option we used was Sodium Bentonite, which basically does the same thing, it expands when it gets wet. We have had 2 ponds dug and both will not fill up past a foot or 2 and we also live in PA and our soil or dirt looks exactly like yours does. Hate to say it, but I highly doubt that pond will ever fill up. I will only become an eyesore over time like ours have done. Before having built it, the people should have known the soil consistency and its odds of holding or filling based on your feed, I do not see a huge feed into it, which also makes me believe the seepage will always far out weight the inflow and basically you will stay at the below ground water level as you currently have been at. When we get a bunch of rain our ponds will raise up, but they will go back down in a few days. Very frustrating,,,
I know from the pool business, not uncommon to lose up to an inch a day, especially if windy. Being as exposed as the pond is, I bet most is to evaporation., small leaks do not help either.
There’s a product called pond seal. Made in the use. Bentonite based polymer, super easy like that if your stuff doesn’t work this stuff will. It’s designed for the drilling industry to seal off water
That stuff is fascinating! If it works for you, and I really hope it does, it will be a tremendous money and time saver! It looked like ice on the water.
Pray he will start listening to The professionals. It would be time well spent as well as money well spent. Right now he is throwing darts in the dark. Not trying to be negative. Hoping for the best.
That fabric roll that you layed down before filling the water in the pond. Maybe it should have been two or three layers thick. I’m just guessing here. Keep us posted.
ADAM, I'm sure over time the dam breast will settle even more with rain fall compacting that clay even more, should stop that weeping. Keep your head up.
I would suggest looking at Bentonite first. Oil field supply companies will carry it just shovel the powder out into the pond surface and it is drawn to the seepage location and will plug it.
The only thing that I know that you might have done different is if (when digging the pond) you had lined the bottom with some visqueen plastic, carefully backfilled over that , and tried to let it fill. That would have been a lot of plastic, but the best ponds that I have also seen (for holding water had the muckiest bottoms that could be found. Cows and pigs (creating mud by rooting around and stomping) create the best “pond sealing” that I have ever seen. Just a thought. We had ponds on our place that only saw spring rains, and a herd of cows could get in there, stomp around, create a muddy bottom, and those ponds would hold water in the driest summers (even with evaporation).
Another possibility is lining the bottom with bentonite clay (if you could find it in large sums at a reasonable price). Building a pond and getting it to hold water is a work in process. Don’t give up.
I was thinking the same thing. Buy 10 buckets of the stuff and put 5 down then the last layer of soil. Save the other 5 for when the thing is full, if needed.
That's some impressive stuff if it works. It would have been cool to put an electric trolling motor on your kayak to mix it all up, but I think it looks to be saturated enough.
No bueno! Our water level came up high enough to start engaging our overflow. I found that we were losing water that way, so I plugged the overflow. ha Video to come. Hope that stuff works. Reworking that dam would be expensive, but it would also mean you have machinery in your front yard again. :)
Bentonite Clay is the answer and is commonly used in the United States for sealing ponds for livestock use and for sealing around well casings to keep contaminants out.
I'd never heard of this product. As an Aussie who sends a lot of stuff to the US you're quite fortunate to have gotten the delivery in about 2 weeks. Not that long ago the mail system was such a mess due to no flights that sometimes express deliveries to the US were sitting in Aus for up to a month waiting for a flight. Non express ones went out as much as 6 weeks.
Seeing how the spreader covered both water and dirt fairly easy and evenly (from my armchair quarterback position anyways), it seems that putting this down prior to filling the pond might work?
I am a Professional Engineer in NC and I design ponds for a living. I also used to be the Stormwater Engineer for my local municipality. I have inspected hundreds of ponds. How can I help?
Maybe research putting bentonite in pond I think it will stop leak. You would need to check how to apply it when water is in pond. They use to stop leaks in stock dams i think they put in sewage lagoons also. Tom from Nebraska
I am suspicious of the lower cost solution but do not think spending money on soil amendments is the way unless you have an inherent soil quality issue, then you still want to use proper compression and compaction sealing methods using equipment. I wish you luck and frankly love how you approach things with a method of research, comparing options then tracking how things go (honestly). That’s one of the best aspects of your channel. We can learn from your successes AND the times when the results don’t deliver. Btw …why are the cost realities between the options and what are the other considerations/concerns. You clearly can count on refilling the pond since you are blessed with spring waters (as well as watershed)
don't remember what you used for the bottom is it a plastic liner or clay or just dirt? I'm thinking of building a similar size pond will probably go with some sort of plastic liner
I hope that stuff works but. That dam was not properly compacted at the beginning so it will likely develop more seep holes as it settles. Those seep holes can make the dam unstable and create a dangerous situation if the dam give out.
