No overflow but the actual pond edge is just a little higher than the surrounding area and situated on a very slight slope. Overflow must run under stones that provided a barrier to keep fish from swimming out.

I have an overflow and it has saved my sorry carcass the bazillion times I've forgotten to turn off the hose!

I definitely would put one in - I think they are a great idea!

Mine is actually in my skimmer box. There is a black pipe running from the back of it, at the top of the box, buried underground and emptying into a lower spot in the yard.

That way if the water gets higher than that point, it just drains out.

B/c of the above mentioned common mental lapses...lol...I always fill my pond by putting the hose in that side of the skimmer.

I don't know how you cannot have an overflow. When you get a heavy all-day rain that water has to go somewhere. And, the water level rising up above the pond perimeter is never a good idea.

I ran an overflow pipe into the back of my skimmer. It sits about an inch above my normal water level. Like Ademink above, it has helped if I've forgotten to shut off a hose on top-off or when we have torential rain. Here is a pic of the drain trench that I ran. It's simple gravity feed, using a 2-inch drain pipe which plumbs into the back of the skimmer (this pic is prior to me making that connection). Hopefully, you have a lower area to drain the water away to, otherwise you'll need to come up with a more complicated solution.

Good luck!
-Chris

{{gwi:202920}}

Here is a link that might be useful: My Pond Album

I build quite a few ponds and I rarely ever use an overflow pipe. I usually build the pond so that one section of the pond edge is set to the height that I want it to overflow at. This is always in the side of the pond that I want the water to drain to the yard at. This section that is low is usually 3 ft to 10 ft long depending on the size of the pond. So the sheet of water that is leaving is so thin that no one would ever even notice it. I have also built ponds that pumps come on to pump the water to a place where the garden can use it.
Mike

Hi Mike,
I've read that some people do that. I didn't want that excess water running into my yard (around the pond) and I wanted to control exactly where it went. I guess koi_pond_2010 has some options.

-Chris

Chris, I can understand not wanting the excess water from the pond in some areas of the yard. There a re a couple of things that I don't like putting an overflow in a skimmer. The first is the same reason I don't like putting autofills in the skimmer. All too often the skimmer will have debri in it causing the water coming in to be blocked some what so that when the pump is running the water level in the skimmer is not the same water level that is in the pond. This can cause an autofill to run constantly or an overflow not to work. The other reason is that the overflow is gravity drain. Depending on where the water is draining, the slope of the pipe, or the length of the piping it may not be able to keep up with the amount of water needing to be drained. The other thing is that the pump output pipe normally goes out of the skimmer wall. If the water level in the skimmer is allowed to get too high water will flow out around this pipe. This is putting water around the skimmer the worst place for it.
Mike

Thanks for all the feedback.
I supposed everyone has different way of doing things and all seems to work. So in my case, since I do not have a skimmer, what I ended up doing is similar to Chris's design. I have a overflow pipe (gravity fed) installed about 1" below the edge of the pond. It goes through the liner (bulkhead fitting) and extend some distance away from the pond. The normal water level is about 0.5" below the opening of this pipe.

Vincent.