water project

[Sligo]

Daughter had a water fall and pond installed recently. Cosmetically looks great. However she was floored by the $350 water bill for a month. The pond is half an ellipsoid and hold maybe 600 gallons. I suspected a leak so I turned off the water supply and within less than 10 hours the pond totally emptied, dry as a bone. Obviously there is a serious leak at the very bottom where the pump is installed. The pond has a plastic liner and cement wall. Builder wants to seal with epoxy coat to repair. I am not inclined to advise her to accept this patchwork because it seems clear to me that the plastic liner is also torn. The speed of the emptying process makes me wonder if she is on a fault line! Soliciting opinions and thoughts, please. Thank you, Seamus J. Wilson

[Matt]

My neighbors have 3 of these monstrosities, in the form of "koi" ponds.

For 2 summers, they tried the epoxy coat thing to stop their leaking. No luck. Now all 3 of them sit empty collecting leaves.

If she can, I'd call whoever "installed" it, get my money back, and backfill.

[Joseph Meehan]

Too bad. The only thing I can think of is to line it with a pond liner material. Of course that only has a given life and it may not look as good. Maybe she can get the thing lined and a partial repayment of what was paid.

[Sligo]

[willshak]

On 1/11/2005 2:42 PM US(ET), Sligo took fingers to keys, and typed the following:

You say it is plastic lined? All the ponds I have seen installed on the TV home improvement shows use a heavy rubber liner. Looks to be about as thick, or thicker, as an inner tube. The guy that built my addition has a double tiered Koi pond and it is heavy rubber lined.

[Sligo]

[Joseph Meehan]

So I see it was designed as with a lining. The contractor should take out the old liner, or find and repair his original error. He should be happy you don't ask him to repay the water bill.

BTW, my Meehan family are from the Ox mountains.

[Rob Gray]

I have a pond out back but my problem is those darn muskrats. Hard to get rid of them once they take up residence.... Ponds can be nice, but they can also be a lot of work if you want them to "look" nice too...

Rob NE PA

[Sligo]