Bogging in New Jersey

[bobchapman]

Today, I got some more piping in; maybe some pix tomorrow. Also started to backfill the trenches up to the level of the pipes that are in place.
A real handy item is to have some flexible PVC pipe on hand: very useful when the pipes don't quite line up properly -- can sort of finesse the connection with this stuff. I used some 2" flex today to get the TPR connection on one side of the pond made up.

 

[bobchapman]

Well, I see that it has been a month since I last updated this story! How time does fly ...

Here's the interior of the filter pit, now insulated above ground level, and with the electric conduits all installed. I glued the insulation to the concrete block wall with PL300 glue (it doesn't attack the styrofoam insulation. I then drilled and screwed the Fypon (plastic wood) to the concrete, right through the insulation, using 4" tapcon screws. If you're not familiar with these: you drill a hole with a hammer drill and concrete drill bit, and then drive the screws in just as for wood screws. I found that the hex-had Tapcons worked great, while the Phillips-head ones bound up and stripped the head.

Here are some partially-filled plumbing trenches. I ran 110 volt electric lines to both pond and bog for both general use and in case I wanted heaters in the pond.

Yesterday, I parged the outside of the pit walls with stucco, colored deep green so it's not such an obvious thing. I had never co;lored any concrete product before: I used quite a bit of the green color and some black to gray it down a bit. I'm pleased with the resulting color and general appearance.
Today, I'm backfilling the outside of the pump pit walls with stone and a topping of dirt. Using 3/8" gravel: easy to shovel as the basic fill material.
Next step is to finish filling the trenches, and smooth the interiors of the bog and pond to get ready for the liners.

 

[addy1]

Nice work!

 

[bobchapman]

Well, I haven't posted for a while. That doesn't mean that I've been idle!!

When I built the pond walls, I used the earth as a form for the concrete ring at the bottom of the wall, on which the concrete block sits. Not a great idea as it turns out, since that doesn't give a smooth surface to lay the liner on. So, I got a diamond cutting wheel and smoothed that part of the wall out to some degree, and also smoothed out the joint of some of the concrete blocks where I hadn't got a real nice joint.

I decided that the liner would still need some more "cushioning" to prevent damage, and found this pink 1/4" foamboard insulation at Home Depot. It comes fan-fold, and one bundle of it did my pond and bog walls with just a small amount remaining when I was finished! (Usually, it seems that I have 90% of the last bundle of material left when I've finished a project, but this worked out perfectly.)

Then the job was to attach this foamboard to the concrete block wall. Following the advice of my usual building-supply people, I used PL300 foamboard adhesive. Sounds like the right thing, doesn't it? I applied a good ribbon of the adhesive along the face of the block, near the top, got the foamboard in place, and clamped it with supporting pieces of wood to get good contact between foam and concrete. I just glued it along the top, as water pressure will keep it in place otherwise, and because there's no way to clamp it for gluing at lower places along the wall.

In the morning I took off the clamps, and in the afternoon and evening we had rain. In the morning, there is all the fanfold foamboard standing happily around, like office workers at the water cooler, hardly attached to the wall at all. It turns out that PL300 is water soluble!

Not exactly what I was hoping for!

After a couple of days of drying out, I re-did all the gluing, re-using the same foamboard, and standard construction adhesive, and it has held just fine through several rainstorms.

 

[addy1]

Looking great! We have used that pink stuff to put it under siding, adds a bit of insulation.

lol about the water soluble!

 

[bobchapman]

Now having the walls protected, I decided that I should add some sand on the floor for additional cushioning of the liner. That's what is happening in the prior picture: my trailer with a yard of sand. I spread it with a rake and tamped it by hand. I have a Harbor Freight vibrating-plate compactor, but it's so heavy that I have no way by myself to get it down into the pond.

Here's the partial result of spreading the sand, not yet tamped down:

Next step is the underlayment of 6 oz fabric. This looks so insubstantial to me that I'm really happy to have put down the sand. It's hard to believe that it will actually provide any protection for the liner. But I have it, can't return it, so it's going in!

I also picked up the liner yesterday: 20' x 50' roll at about 375 pounds. If I cut it properly, it will do for both pond and bog, so I will try very hard to get the cut at the right point.

I think that I've figured out how to get the liner in place. I generally work alone, so it's a bit of a trick to manage such a heavy item, which I expect will also be quite cumbersome. The saving grace is that I have a manlift which I'm hoping to use as a crane. My intention is to suspend the roll of liner on a pipe (think toilet paper roll on the dispenser next to your commode, or Bounty paper towel on a horizontal dispenser in the kitchen), and unroll it over the pit. The fall-back position is 4 undocumented workers, who are quite readily available here. We shall see ...

 

[bobchapman]

lol about the water soluble!

There is always some unexpected "wrinkle" to home projects; I just hope that this is the major one for this project!

 

[addy1]

I would try to get the liner set in the pond before you cut anything. Fill with water then cut the liner for the bog. Those short liner opps are so hard to fix

 

[bobchapman]

I would try to get the liner set in the pond before you cut anything. Fill with water then cut the liner for the bog. Those short liner opps are so hard to fix

Yup, my idea exactly, too, and for that reason ("oopses"). It's always a little nervous-making when cutting into an expensive piece of material when you know there's no reasonable way to repair an error! In many ways similar to gluing up PVC piping: with any other material (copper, steel, etc.) you can take it apart again and fix a problem. With a PVC-pipe glue-up error, you cut it out and toss it away.

 

[bobchapman]

Thanks, Addy, for your continued support of this thread: it's very useful to me, and I suppose to many others also.

 

[Lisak1]

I would get the four helpers... no matter how carefully you unroll that roll, there are bound to be areas that need to be tugged this way and that. It's so much easier if you have someone on each side and one person in the hole. Just a suggestion! Things are looking great!

 

[addy1]

We did ours with the two of us, 55 x 38 or so..................not epdm but it still was darn heavy. I don't think I could have done it by myself.

 

[addy1]

Thanks, Addy, for your continued support of this thread: it's very useful to me, and I suppose to many others also.

Thanks and glad to help. I have filtered almost all of my ponds with bog/gravel/plant filters.

 

[bobchapman]

Tomorrow is shaping up as "liner day". Here's the lift in place to carry the load:

and here's the 20 x 50 roll of EPDM.

I'm planning to put a pipe through the cardboard tube that the liner is wrapped onto, and suspend that pipe from the cage of the lift. Then, I should be able to swing the liner over the hole, and unroll the liner into the pond (it says here in fine print). I'm sure that the tugging and re-arranging will be the more strenuous part of the job. We shall see...

35' of the liner will go into the pond, and the remainder into the bog. I expect the bog to be easier!

 

[addy1]

Nice set up! Make sure you take sequential pictures!