How many years should lakes and ponds last?
Well designed man-made ponds should last for centuries. The reality for poorly designed ponds can be less than ten years due to factors such as siltation and excessive residual nutrients. We expect our lakes and ponds to be going strong for generations to come. We design them to become a lasting legacy to be handed down for many generations. Synthetic lake and pond liner life expectancies run a couple decades. We do not agree with the idea of a pond needing to be rebuilt after just a couple decades. Regardless of the life expectancy of a synthetic liner, many of these ponds are experiencing siltation and choking with weeds long before the liner wears out. It isn’t unusual for one of these poorly designed ponds to choke out with weeds in as little as five years. We know because we get the call to fix them. In most cases we rip them out and restore them for the long term. To be fair, poorly designed earthen ponds can expect similar life expectancy, even if the clay seal will function for
