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Pond Fabrication
Clarington
Posts: 4,949
Amongst the complete redesign of the garden I'm having a raised pond (approx 8ft x 6ft x 3ft high). I will be building it and lining the interior with fibreglass for the bespoke finish to our style. However I don't know whether it would be best to use standard bricks or concrete blocks (dense?). The first layer will be sunk into the ground (at least partly).
Can anyone advise what we should use to best avoid any structural issues?
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I built a pond sometime ago
You could consider this methed
Buy old railway sleepers and build the framework and leave the top sleepers unattached from the ones below
Make a pond with 3 different depths.....12 " and 18" and 24" so the pond life have a variety of shelters.
Frogs like it deeper
Make the mold with earth after getting out all big stones and then add sand to a depth of 3 inches and flatten to your taste and then either add old blankets or go straight to the pond liner to get your chopsen shape
The advantage of this method is that you can be " creative " and can leave a shallow approach for frogs to the water
Now place the liner over the top sleeper and then place the final sleeper on top and secure
the sleepers are not cheap anmd are very heavy but will give more satisfaction than buying a supermarket mould
You can sit on themin the Summer and watch the frogs and dragon flies
More info available
Enjoy
If it's 3' high above ground level you are almost certainly going to require reinforcement in the brick/blockwork so hollow block with reinforcing rods and concrete fill would seem to be the most practical, if not pretty, way of doing it. There will be a fair amount of sideways pressure with that depth of water so over-engineering is certainly preferrable to 1200 gallons of water escaping at a later date.
KT53.....I am def not an engineer so bow to your knowledge re stresses
The weight of the sleepers will form a stable framework
Clarington....let is know how it goes
Newboy, sleepers if well anchored would probably do the job but I was responding to Carlington's questions about whether brick or block would be better.
I have a couple of raised beds made with sleepers - 3 sleepers on edge which makes it about 2 1/2 feet high. They have reinforcing rods driven right through and about 2 feet into the ground to prevent the weight of soil pushing them over. I didn't do that myself, the installation was done professionally and that was their construction method.
KT53......many thanks
My sleepers had massive nails driven in to do the job so point taken
Lets wish him / her luck
My brother-in-law has a pond on his patio in bricks, but well lined. I think he built it himself. It's a bit like this one, but bigger, I think it's rather attractive.
Thanks busy-lizzie!
After working out the costs for the 400+ bricks and other materials I need we've decided to go for a much simpler design and use the rest of the money on the new kitchen!