It was about 1996, at Yarrow Bay above Kirkland Wa.
I worked as a general day-laborer for a home builder and was hired to help a different company build a outdoor pond infront of a new home.
(So I was really working for a builder who lent me out to a pond company for a few days.)
The pond they made was about 25 feet long, about 10 feet wide and at most about 4 foot deep.
The day before the house was sold and the new owners moved their stuff in I saw the pond people working on the pond.
I saw they drained the pond and cleaned it, then added new water.
The pond really looked good the day the new owners took over the keys.
But 24 hours later I noticed that about 1/2 the water in the pond was missing?
My boss also noticed and so he told me to run a hose over and fill it up.
My boss was also upset at the pond builder for not filling the pond all the way up with water the day before for some reason?
2 days later on December 24th, (Christmas eve) I received a phone call about 6:00 at night from my boss.
My boss was out of the state but had received a message that the new owners of the home with the pond were saying that they were right in the middle of their Christmas dinner, (with a home filled with people) when water started to enter their basement!
My boss said he could not get a hold of anyone who worked for the company who built the pond so he wanted me to take a wet/dry shop vac over to that house and suck up any water getting into the basement.
I went over with my shop vac and the people there took me down to their basement.
Thats where I saw what was going on.
'OH MY GAUD!"
The Christmas tree was laied out on it's side, the many gifts on the floor showed signs on their wrapping paper that they had been under water.
The people had ripped up the room's carpet and the whole house smelled of a wet dog.
I did what I could with my little vac, but there was WAY too much water flowing into the basement for me to stop.
After 2 hours I gave up , I had done what I could but there was no sign of the water ever stopping.
The people thanked me for helping them and I left the shaop vac for the people to use on their own.
Im told they didnt sleep for about the next 72 hours fighting the flood.
Later I saw that the pond was filled in with dirt and was a flower garden now.
I asked my boss why?
The problem turned out to be the bottom drain.
The bottom drain had been working well for a while, but we think the people who had cleaned the pond just days before the owners moved in had cracked something underground.
It may have been a pipe under the pond, or a fitting that was not glued right, or perhaps something else, but whatever it was it meant that this pond would never be able to hold water.
Or if it did hold water, it could never really be trusted 100% in the future.
This is why I am against pond bottom drains on ponds that are close to homes or a property line....
(I wrote the above as part of another topic but I have been thinking all day about what I have writen and felt I needed to share this point of view of mine as part it's own topic.)
I worked as a general day-laborer for a home builder and was hired to help a different company build a outdoor pond infront of a new home.
(So I was really working for a builder who lent me out to a pond company for a few days.)
The pond they made was about 25 feet long, about 10 feet wide and at most about 4 foot deep.
The day before the house was sold and the new owners moved their stuff in I saw the pond people working on the pond.
I saw they drained the pond and cleaned it, then added new water.
The pond really looked good the day the new owners took over the keys.
But 24 hours later I noticed that about 1/2 the water in the pond was missing?
My boss also noticed and so he told me to run a hose over and fill it up.
My boss was also upset at the pond builder for not filling the pond all the way up with water the day before for some reason?
2 days later on December 24th, (Christmas eve) I received a phone call about 6:00 at night from my boss.
My boss was out of the state but had received a message that the new owners of the home with the pond were saying that they were right in the middle of their Christmas dinner, (with a home filled with people) when water started to enter their basement!
My boss said he could not get a hold of anyone who worked for the company who built the pond so he wanted me to take a wet/dry shop vac over to that house and suck up any water getting into the basement.
I went over with my shop vac and the people there took me down to their basement.
Thats where I saw what was going on.
'OH MY GAUD!"
The Christmas tree was laied out on it's side, the many gifts on the floor showed signs on their wrapping paper that they had been under water.
The people had ripped up the room's carpet and the whole house smelled of a wet dog.
I did what I could with my little vac, but there was WAY too much water flowing into the basement for me to stop.
After 2 hours I gave up , I had done what I could but there was no sign of the water ever stopping.
The people thanked me for helping them and I left the shaop vac for the people to use on their own.
Im told they didnt sleep for about the next 72 hours fighting the flood.
Later I saw that the pond was filled in with dirt and was a flower garden now.
I asked my boss why?
The problem turned out to be the bottom drain.
The bottom drain had been working well for a while, but we think the people who had cleaned the pond just days before the owners moved in had cracked something underground.
It may have been a pipe under the pond, or a fitting that was not glued right, or perhaps something else, but whatever it was it meant that this pond would never be able to hold water.
Or if it did hold water, it could never really be trusted 100% in the future.
This is why I am against pond bottom drains on ponds that are close to homes or a property line....
(I wrote the above as part of another topic but I have been thinking all day about what I have writen and felt I needed to share this point of view of mine as part it's own topic.)
.
Did you not see the "
