Nobody Likes Guessing at Their Own Backyard
There will be strangers and machinery in my backyard for most of a week, so how do I find out what’s actually happening back there?
And who am I supposed to ask?
In this post, you’ll learn who your point of contact is at each stage, what the spray-paint layout looks like before anybody digs, how the video updates work, and what happens once the water is in.
How Will I Know What Is Happening during My Pond Build?
During a pond build, your crew leader checks in at the start and end of each workday.
Before installation, you work directly with your salesperson, and at installation, we hand you over to the crew leader during a walkthrough with everyone present.
Each check-in covers what they’re about to do, what just got done, and what’s planned for tomorrow.
At Premier Ponds, we post video updates too.
How Premier Ponds Keeps You in the Loop from Layout to Fill-Up
Two people carry your project.
You meet both.
Until the job hands over to the crew, you deal directly with your salesperson, who is either Andrew or Mike.
At installation, we hand you over to a crew leader, and we do that in a walkthrough with everyone standing there, because trust doesn’t transfer over email.
From then on, the crew leader checks in twice: once at the start of the work day, once at the end.
What they’re about to do, what just got done, and what’s planned for tomorrow.
We work out of Glenwood, and the crew that pulls into your driveway on day one is the same crew there on day five.
None of this should be a surprise when it happens, either.
We lay out the whole process on our site, so you can see the next step before you ever call us.
What the Spray-Paint Layout Walkthrough Lets You Decide Up Front
Position and scale, settled in your actual yard.
We paint the footprint on your grass, and you walk it with us.
No scale drawing.
Standing on the edge of the real thing tells you something a drawing on a screen can’t, which is why we’d rather you see it that way before we break ground.
By that point, most of the big decisions are already made.
The infrastructure, the engineering, the kit, the correct liner size, and the rock are all set and on the way.
What’s left is the small stuff, like how we orient the waterfall or how many bottom lights you want down there.
One thing to keep straight: those lines mark the excavation point, not the finished water surface.
Once we start filling the edges with rock, the shape pulls in a little, so the water ends up sitting inside the paint.
How Video Updates on Facebook Let You and Your Family Watch the Build
We post video progress updates while your pond is being built.
You can watch the hole turn into a pond from your office, and your family can watch from wherever they are.
Send the link around.
Paul’s five-day build in Parkville, Baltimore County, picked up more than a million views once it was out there.
How Every Phase Is Documented in Our Project Catalog
We photograph every pond we build at six points, always in the same order:
- Before State. The yard as it was, and the site conditions we started with.
- Excavation. The open pit, bare dirt, the crew working, and the machinery on site.
- Rock Setting. The EPDM liner is going in; boulders are being placed; and gravel fill is being placed.
- New Landscaping. Aquatic plants, marginal plants, and the garden beds around the pond.
- Fill/Startup. The pond filling, and the first lilies or lotus going in.
- Complete/After. Clear water, the koi, the waterfall running, the patio, all of it working.
Same six phases, every job.
That consistency is the point, because the excavation photos from a build three years ago are still useful to us today.
What Happens after Fill-Up: The Three-Day, Three-Week, and Three-Month Check-Ins
We don’t run a three-day, three-week, three-month schedule anymore.
That one’s retired.
It was set up years ago, back before our maintenance communication got as good as it is now.
What happens instead starts at the finished pond.
You get a final walkthrough with your crew lead, we go over how to keep the pond healthy, and you get our owner’s manual with the care instructions.
You also get a report card on the work.
Then you get their card.
We don’t leave until you’re 100% happy, so that walkthrough ends when you say it does.
After that, our quarterly mailers keep us in touch, including with brand-new clients.
Call on a Saturday, and you’ll hear back first thing Monday at the latest.
Why a Crew That Stays in Touch Beats One That Vanishes Behind the Fence
Because the person who built your pond is the person who knows why it was built that way.
Your crew lead stays your contact indefinitely, and the person who builds your pond is the person who maintains it.
That matters more a few years in than it does the week you sign.
When we take over another company’s pond for a renovation, the punch list includes items like overgrown plants, filters left sitting in plain view, unstable rocks, waterfalls that leak, and water too cloudy to see the fish.
Somebody built that and left.
On our own ponds, the seasonal work is scheduled: spring is draining and cleaning, dividing plants, and starting water treatments; fall is cleaning, filter maintenance, cutting plants back, and getting a de-icer in before the freeze.
There are 175 homeowners on recurring service with us right now, in Annapolis, Edgewater, Severna Park, and across Howard, Carroll, and Baltimore counties.
None of them had to go looking for a new pond company.
Ready for a Build You Can Actually Follow? Call Premier Ponds
The short version: you’ll hear from your crew leader at the start and end of every work day, and you’ll know what’s coming before it happens. If that’s how you’d like your build to go, fill out our contact form or give us a call today. We’d be glad to hear what you’re picturing.
