I’m in Iowa. It can get below zero here in the winter. But this is only going to be 2 blocks high. I’m willing to risk heaving there. I’ll put plenty of rebar vertically as stakes, and fill the cavities. Mortar between the layers.
could/should I add a bog?
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Good point about the footing GBBUDD.
the rebar is needed horizontaly for uplift from freezing the vertical pins are lateral strength. depending on how serious this pond will be a 8 inch thick footing with 2 rebar 2 inches off the bottom would go a long way. if you don't want to go with a footing then a wood frame would probably fair better in frost heaving.
You guys and your good advice......I’m running in circles! But seriously, thanks. You’re right. Iowa gets butt cold and soils do heave. I don’t want you pour footings so I guess I’ll use wood in addition to digging down some. Safe to assume I can use pressure treated timbers since I’ll have the liner inside it?
Keep this in mind while we all have opinions it's your pond i remember one elderly guy not so long ago he just stacked cinder blocks 2 high and then installed the rubber i have no idea if it worked or not i gave pretty much the same advice but in the end it's your pond. i was advised when i started not to cover the entire liner inside the pond when i started. I understand why they advised not to but i myself think the benefits out weigh the negative aspects. But again thats my call. Like the raised pond you are doing now now are friends across the big pond would say you MUST have a pond 6 feet deep or more . again it's your pond your call. Concrete mortared together without a footing in new england will have a very short life in comparison. i wouldn't give it 5 years until it was cracking rebar or not but if the rebar keeps it all together it's not the concrete that keeps the water in its the rubber but it's the concrete that keeps the shape. We or i am just the guy sitting on your shoulder saying what you don't want to hear.
And honestly pouring footings is not a big deal unless you are going below frost. Now that's as much work as the entire project you were thinking of.
And honestly pouring footings is not a big deal unless you are going below frost. Now that's as much work as the entire project you were thinking of.
Hey, I appreciate all the advice. When I dug my pond people told me I had to have a minimum 4 ft depth or the fish would die over winter. I’m at 3-3.5 ft deep and can’t stop the dang goldies from multiplying!
I don’t wanna do footings because my lawn is 125% hard packed clay and digging the pond nearly killed me! I’m fine with wood, it’s gonna be hidden behind the shed mostly. My biggest obstacle now is how to transition to the pond. Kinda awkward as I have to turn the corner a bit from behind the shed.
I buy the seam tapes glues and such from roofing supplies. the rubber is the same as far as i know but the roofing has powder on it i am told was for fire resistance but it washes right off.
When it comes to the liner in the bog i would leave yourself a foot extra above and beyond where the water height will be it seems a common ocurance that the bogs can BUILD UP FROM ROOTS and start wicking even just rubber in a fold can wick water up a few inches. Never cut the liner keep all you can for down the road unforseens. as far as how to make the tie in to the pond do the same get your liner over sized. If you can do the bog and falls to the pond all in one piece and the existing up to your now falls cn run up the wall to the new bog that overlap maybe enough you wouldn't need to seem.
Ok, so I don’t have much liner available for seaming here. The dirt area was where the biofalls box was. If remove the rest of the rock shown that the falls spilled onto and tuck the new liner UNDER the old liner and seem as best as possible, replace the rocks and then the new falls will drop back onto those rocks again....sound reasonable? The 4x4s are the outline of where I’m putting the bog box
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What I would do is build it up a bit 10 inches or more above the pond edge. Tuck the new liner OVER the pond liner. The water will waterfall into the main pond and most likely will not leak.
That’s kinda my plan here. I was just thinker tuck under because of how funky the edge of the liner is where it was attached to the biofalls. Here’s a pic of the front/pond edge of the bog box. I was gonna use one row of timber and dig down from there because if the odd shape I need I thought it’d be hard to build a structurally strong box on site
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What addy said...you want to lay the new liner OVER the old liner. If you do it the other way, the water will flow under the old liner.
Make sure you have good amount of liner overlap. What I have done is laid my new liner over the old one with enough overlap to reach into the pond water. Before you lay the new liner, try to build up a slope of soil under the old liner pitched toward the pond. I would even shape that soil mound in a concave fashion for extra insurance to guide the water away from the edges and down into the pond.
Here's how I transitioned my new bog liner into my existing pond:
In the picture below, you can see the old liner goes up and over the new transition wall between the bog and pond. I was lucky, I had plenty of old liner that used to be under my old waterfall.
Almost done in the picture below:
Make sure you have good amount of liner overlap. What I have done is laid my new liner over the old one with enough overlap to reach into the pond water. Before you lay the new liner, try to build up a slope of soil under the old liner pitched toward the pond. I would even shape that soil mound in a concave fashion for extra insurance to guide the water away from the edges and down into the pond.
Here's how I transitioned my new bog liner into my existing pond:
In the picture below, you can see the old liner goes up and over the new transition wall between the bog and pond. I was lucky, I had plenty of old liner that used to be under my old waterfall.
Almost done in the picture below:
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That's great!
Lift the old liner and pack soil in there to create a slope away from that timber. Pack it good and make it concave shaped as I stated in my previous post.
Try and think ahead and shape that packed soil with some sort of shelves too. This way when you lay your liners, you'll have a stable base to stack large stones to hide the liner for a more natural look. You don't want a big ugly unnatural black liner eye sore.
Here's a couple more ideas:
I personally have never used it, but some people have used the black waterfall spray foam to hide the liner. They spray it on and stick small stones and sand into it before it hardens. I don't know how durable that stuff is. I'd worry about it peeling and only use it minimally if necessary at all.
Then there's the rock on a roll stuff. Basically liner material that comes in different natural looking patterns. Maybe you can buy a small piece just to cover the falls area. Lay it over your new liner just in that exposed area. It will just be for looks and not serve as a liner.
So in looking at this, if I only go one or two rows high of timbers I could pull the old liner up over the lip of the bog box. Then I put in the bog liner and lay it over the top of the old liner and down into the splash zone/rock shelf that already exists. Put the splash/landing rocks on top of both liners there. Would I need to seam the two liners then? Or would I be safe with the overlap? The pond level even when really full doesn’t reach up to where the timbers are now
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You won't have to seam it, especially with that amount of overlap and the fact that it reaches all the way up and over the timber.
Just make sure to shape the soil under the liners in a concave fashion so the water can't escape over the right or left sides before it reaches the pond. Remember, water will seek the path of least resistance and you (of course) want that to be down and into your pond.
Just make sure to shape the soil under the liners in a concave fashion so the water can't escape over the right or left sides before it reaches the pond. Remember, water will seek the path of least resistance and you (of course) want that to be down and into your pond.