Pond repair advice needed
Alex80
Posts: 1
Hi,
My wife and I would like some advice.
This is a long post and may not be specific enough. This is because we're new to ponds and pond repair. We're happy to provide more information and to answer any questions.
We have recently moved in to a new house with a pond and the pond is in need of repair - it's in poor repair and has a bad leak about halfway up one of the sids.
The pond looks to be a concrete pond (without a liner) and is stone clad at the top of the sides. It also has a waterfall water feature, some plants, fish and frogs. There is also a street-light type light on the side of the pond. There are no electrics currently installed. See photos.
We think that the pond and water feature need new liners, a pump and a filter. We'll also need an armoured cable to provide electricity to the light, pump and filter.
We had a quote for £7k and this is way too much for us, so we're going to give it a shot ourselves - getting tradesmen in to do electrics, rendering etc.
We're new to this and need to know how to plan the work.
We are thinking that we'll have to follow these steps:
1. Drain pond and rehouse plants and fish. We were thinking of doing this in a paddling pool with an aerator. Does this sound sensible? How powerful an aerator should we get - we've around 15 small to medium sized goldfish. If we do this, how long will we have to fix the pond?
2. Remove stone cladding from pond and water feature.
3. Grind down probable leak area (see attached photo) and fill with waterproof filler. What material should we use here?
4. Lay pond liner with suitable underlay.
5. Get specialist electrician to fit electrics and pump + filter.
6. Get professional to render side of pond and reattach stone cladding.
7. Fit plastic grid with legs over the top of the pond to make it child friendly.
8. Refill pond.
Does this sound sensible?
What materials are we likely to need?
The water feature means that one side of the pond is raised - how do we attach the liner here? Do we just cut it to fit?
Do we cut a hole in the liner for the pump and filter?
I appreciate that this may be a bit vague, but that's because we're new to ponds and pond repairs. Any advice will be greatly appreciated!
Alex and Trish
Pond internal dimensions:
Length - 1.6m, Width - 1.3m, Depth - 0.5m
Water feature internal dimensions:
Length - 0.6m, Width - 0.6m, Depth - 0.5m.
Pond and light:
Water feature:
Inside water feature:
Leak site:
Posts
£7k!! - they're takin the you-know-what
I don't know what a box liner is - I have a butyl lined koi pond, a fibre glass w/l pond and a big fish tank - just something to bear in mind, one of the problems with a pond that has straight sides is that as the surface freezes in winter the water expands. With straight sides there's no space for expansion, but the freezing water WILL expand which may have caused the crack in the first place. With slightly sloping sides, the water can expand safely
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
Box liner would either be fibreglass custom made to fit the current dimensions, or butyl rubber also made to measure. Vertical sides of a rectangle aren't really suitable to lining with a conventional butyl sheet. Far too many creases to try to hide.
When you said 7k I expected to see photos of a lake, not a pond. Would they be using solid gold tools to do the job?
I have a small pond, about the same size as yours, and which has a flexiliner. Not as good as butyl, but it should have lasted for years...however, I sited it close to a leylandi, and I think a root has punctured the liner because despite steady rain for the last few days, the level has gone down by a couple of inches.
My solution is to take the opportunity to start from scratch, to resite the pond in a more appropriate place, well away from any bushes which might have roots, and meantime put the fairly sparse pond life (the frogs have fled the nest so its just leeches, insects and other invertebrate stuff) into buckets and plastic boxes till the water in the new pond has "settled". I'll use flexiliner again because I'm instinctively mean.
I'm not as knowledgeable as the folks who have posted above, so nothing really to add except the aforementioned waffle, but I do get my stuff from Pondkeeper too, and can endorse Doghouse's recommendation.
Last edited: 02 July 2017 11:48:13
My first question would be - do you want to keep it as a fish pond or have it for wildlife? Currently if a hedgehog falls in there it's toast.
Also, if you really want to have a pond, is it in the right place? Might be worthwhile thinking about digging a new one somewhere else and then moving everything over. Would also give you more time to get sorted.
But I agree - £7k is a joke.
I know, I've got some film of hedgehogs swimming in my pond at night
- perhaps what I should have said is that they are very heavy and a little clumsy and need a beach to be able to walk out. The pics of the pond, above, look like it's got straight sides and a lot of wildlife would struggle with that.