Pond glue

[Bill]

Son has had a number of contractors to look at refurbishing his garden pond. Loads of people didn't turn up and ones who did have either never returned or provided estimates but now don't answer their phones to him.

He has decided he will have to do a quick bodge rush job.

The round pond has a liner that appears intact. In one area the water has overflowed and washed away the soil under the liner and at the bottom of the wall.

The pond appears to have a bottom and walls of crazy paving and a surrounding crazy paving walkway.

He is proposing to buy some bags of sand, fill the bottom and side of the pond with this, take up the crazy paving where the water has washed away the soil underneath and re-lay this.

T he liner seems to have been glued to the crazy paving pond wall originally. The subsidence has occurred where the glue has failed and water has got over the edge.

So, what glue would it be sensible to use? It looks as though it was something like Evostick before. Is just a normal contact adhesive likely to be OK? It needs to be cheap in quantity!

The heron ate all the fish, so we don't have to worry about hazard to fish health.

[Brian-Gaff]

I suspect the person who made the pond made the liner too small where it flops over and thuse it pulls away and water has got over it.Either that or its split somewhere you cannot see. Won't need much. I've never seen anyone glue pond liners to crazy paving, that is unless your paving is made of plastic!

Brian

[Bill]

In message , Phil L writes

We think it's dangerous, and there is a wedding coming up and guests might swarm.

2 pictures at

The vertical edge of the liner is cut off level with the top paving. There is glue all around the edge. Some of it seems to have stuck and be OK, but in the worst area an old cement repair seems to have been done. This is the main place the glue has failed.

[Chris Hogg]

How not to make a pond! Two options for a decent repair:

1) Buy a new liner about 3 feet larger than the old liner in all directions, butyl is best; lift the paving all around the edge of the pond; lay new liner into pond; fill with water; relay and cement paving into place on top of the new liner where it overlaps the perimeter of the pond. 2) Use old liner; remove liner from pond; reduce area of pond by building a wall about 12 inches in, all around the inside to the depth of the pond, using concrete blocks loose-laid on their sides onto the pond floor; fill in gap between this wall and edge of old pond with sand/shingle/concrete/whatever; replace liner, which will now be too big for the new pond and will overlap the perimeter around the top edge; lay new paving slabs on top of liner where it overlaps the perimeter of the pond.

[damduck-egg]

I'm wondering if the liner was already a repair which is why it wasn't installed the proper way being laid large enough to have the stones laid on the edge of it. Possibly some cracked concrete underneath.

If it is cracked concrete underneath a layer of something to protect the new liner would not amiss if there are some sharp edges, Sand, old blankets or the proper stuff bought from water garden suppliers.

G.Harman

[Peter Parry]

If you do a quick bodge on top of something which looks very like an even quicker awful bodge job the result will be like the pictures only worse and more expensive, You can't glue the liner to the sides - as the previous owner found out. (Or at least not without doing much more work than relining the pond). The correct procedure has been explained - one shortcut you can take though is rather than digging up the flagstones and re-laying them extend the liner completely over them and lay fresh flagstones on top with a very slight overhang (1inch) over the pond. .

[Bill]

Thanks, Chris.

The problem is that we really do need to do a quick, temporary bodge, rather than a proper job. There's a fountain in the pond that is not vertical, so he had booked a proper groundworks contractor to start this week, after several postponements, but it's all gone quiet. There's a wedding, guests might visit and the path by the pond moves when poked.

I argued against a sand and glue bodge, but was convinced that, if we could find a glue, it might work for a bit. A small amount of water should keep it in place if we can get a light adhesive effect...... perhaps. The original glue has held up round about 60% of the liner.

[Chris Hogg]

I had in mind using the old liner to provide that sort of protection.

A note to the OP: when I said 'Buy a new liner about 3 feet larger than the old liner in all directions', I mean exactly that, bigger than the old liner, not just bigger than the hole. Remove the old liner and measure it, max length by max width*. The replacement you get will be rectangular, rolled or folded up, and _heavy_ (it may take two people to lift it!). Unfold it and manoeuver it over the hole so it's fairly slack and centrally positioned. Brim-fill pond with water to weigh the liner down; ease the sides as it's filling so that the liner isn't under tension and stretched anywhere. When filled, leave overnight for things to settle. Trim off excess liner, leaving at least 12 inches overlap around the edges, onto which to lay the surrounding paving.

*Help in estimating size of liner to order, here:

Plenty of instructions on the web for lining a pond. GIYF.

[Chris Hogg]

I've seen Polyflex HM suggested for pond liner repair, and it's said to be waterproof and that it also sticks to concrete, stone, wood etc. Never used it but might be worth a try.

Failing that, try silicone?

Get the path fixed. Wobbly paving near a pond, with champagne-filled guests, could be disastrous!

>

[Roger Mills]

One problem with black butyl pond-liner is that it doesn't like direct sunlight. If you do decide to replace the liner with a bigger piece and re-build the pond, you could do something like we did.

We built a double step all the way round the pond under the paving, taking the liner onto the first step - with a row of blue bricks on top of it - and then on up to the second step.

See

One photo shows the method of construction, and the other shows the finished item after the paving had been added. The water level is half-way up the blue bricks, so there is no liner exposed to sunlight.