Raised pond under construction - a few tips please

Claire75, Please post more pics of your pond, I for one would love to see them..Love Dee..

 

Hi Claire thanks for your comments. Im planning on keeping fish rather than plants in the pond, although will try a plant or two, so need to make sure i get plants which will not be eaten!! Im thinking about a small lilly for part of the pond, and maybe soemthing tropical - such as a cyperus in a pot.

At this stage im not really worrying about what the plats will be!

The pond will have a raised planted area behind part of it, which is going to be home to a gunnera, which should offer some shade to the pond as well.

On the whole i think i have it more or less worked out, but its always best to check with more experianced pond people in case i have missed or overlooked something obvious.

Can anyone recomend a supplier for the liner?

 

loys of them put there depends what you want.
butyl is losing its No1 place

I suggest bradshawsdirect

 

Hi water-garden, what do you mean by losing its place, is there a new/better product available?

 

Years ago people would say butyl is the "rolls royce" of pond liners - hence it was the number one type of liner to have. and it was g'teed for 20 -25 years

How ever since then people that make liners have made liners from (what ever) that are g'teed up to 40 years. so these have knocked butyl off its number one slot.

Nothing wrong with butyl, its just thick, and weighs a lot for its size, and its not the easiest to fold, and often is better with two people to move it.

If you want butyl by all means have it, a tip is to install it on a sunny day, and leave it outside in the sun (un folded) for a couple of hours, this makes it easier to manouvre.

The ultimate "liner" if cost is not a problem is to have your pool fibre glassed.

 

Just a thought, don't know how far the work is in progress, but I made a raised pond several years ago. I actually dug out about a foot first then lay the blocks as you are, but I then chose the option of a liner, which I draped over the top of the blocks, then continued with two courses of brickwork, draped the liner back to sandwich, then laid some slabs over it. I expect you have progressed too far by now, but thought it's a way of finishing it off. Might be of use to someone . Good luck anyway...

 

Personally id use pond paint rather than liner or fibreglass it, worth investigating fibreglass as its not that expensive or difficult to do.

As for rendering, as with plastering its a skill and not the easiest thing to describe however make sure your mix is buttery, I sudgest pleanty of SBR and coat the blocks with a light stipple of sbr and cement dust slurry, this helps it to stick as well as giving it waterprofing propertys use a mixer dont hand mix.

1 scratch coat followed by a finish coat once dry (2 days). as with plastering try and lay it on quickly, dont worry too mutch about a perfect finish, allow it to harden slightly THEN trowel it level. If your render is drying too quick, spray it with a light mist of water, Cover it, in the summer months I use damp hessian as this keeps the humity.

 

Thanks for the tips Paul, the rendering was the part i was not looking forward to as this will be my first attempt at a larger area.

Seeker, i hadnt gone down first due to the already being a large slab of concrete i am using for the base. A previous owner had concreted an area of about 5m x 5m which seemed like to big a job to remove as it is rather thick. Part of it will be the pond, and the rest will be laid to patio - should be a nice solid base for it

I havent progressed much lately as i was busy at work and then on holiday.

 

Glad it was helpfull, any problems just ask. You can buy SBR from builders merchants or:

http://www.toolstation.com/search.html?searchstr=sbr

 

The basic pond blockwork is now complete - its taken me ages really as only had the odd afternoon here and there but feeling faily pleased. The pond is about 1.2mx3mx 75cm deep (internal measurements). The rendering will be done after i have the liner etc sorted out.

Its a rectangular shape at the edge of what will be a patio at the bottom of the garden - ideal for barbeques without annoying the neighbours!. Behind the pond is a odd shaped section like a rectangle but with a traingle taken out of it (i hope you can picture what i mean).

This area was planned to be built up level with the pond and then lined to grow a gunnera and maybe the odd other bog type plants in it. (behind this is the shed, which i hoped to hide a bit)

However I thought changing the design slightly and running the return water though a small pool or even two small pools with a small waterfall with the idea being to plant this up with water plants to help with the filtration. (there will be a pump and filter as well) and remove some of the fish waste. My thought was that this would help give a clearer water quality.

So first of all has anyone else got this arangement and how does it wotk. Does it seem a good idea or should i stick with the full planting idea?

Ill try and remember to take a photo tonight.

 

If the filter and the UV are the right size no plants required.

But it doesnt mean to say you can't have plants.

 

Just a note of warning...Do be careful about any trees that are in the vicinity, if you have any of course. I have a prostrate juniper next to one of my ponds, which looked very pretty, until I had a bad leak and had to replace the liner. When I found the roots firmly attached to the liner ...

 

This project has started to drag a little now. Limited time available due to work, and then the time I can get stuck in, like yesterday it chucks it down. However the block work is pretty much done. Need to get the liner sorted out next.

 

Another question. Im finally at the stage to get the liner.

There seem to be many different choices etc. From reading online it seems butyl is the longer lasting option. However i have seen lots of places selling a slightly cheaper product called greenseal butyl. What is Greenseal and is it as good as normal Butyl? I dont want to think im getting a saving only to get something that wont last as long.

 

you have been reading the wrong websites

Butyl used to be the best, but not anymore. Also being thicker it is very heavy like for like.

What g'tee have you seen 20 years? 25 years?

You my want to look at bradshaws

35 years