Help & Advice on Inherited large concrete pond project.

[leecharles]

So here is my inherited cracked and generally rubbish concrete pond in Staffordshire UK.
Its 20 foot by 10 foot x average 24" deep with 2 deeper holes 1 at each end around 36".

My idea is to use timber sleepers of 8 foot x 10" x 5" to raise a wall around the outside to raise the height by 15 or 20".

Could I lay the timbers 5" down on ground so 10" high and use two deep to give me 20" high or for stability 10" down on ground x 3 high for extra 15" high wall?

I then intend to buy a customised liner made to fit in butyl.

There is also a much smaller feeder pond to the side, should I fill it in or raise it up like the main pond and connect the two? Could this somehow be used as an extra type of filter?

I am in the planning and clearing stage at the moment so all suggestions gratefully received.

I am a relative novice to ponds but good at DIY and the pond will be ornamental with plants and mixed fish, not Koi.
Kind Regards,
Lee

 

[leecharles]

 

[Tula]

Wow, neat looking structure. I think using the structure to hold a liner is a good idea....just be sure to oust underlayment down before the linder, so any cement cracks don't punter your new liner. If I had this pond, I'd raise the smaller one, higher and have it spill into the mail pond.....planting the upper pond with marginal plants etc -------pretty and good filtration!

 

[Waterbug]

I couldn't really get a good idea from the pictures, but this looks like a pretty standard first timer DIY deal if they didn't use a liner under the concrete. Lots of people think concrete never cracks and holds water.

Because of the cracks I assume this is not a proper gunite type structure, like a proper concrete swimming pool would be. That would be a good foundation for raising a pond.

I think there is absolutely no question you will be much better off ripping it out. Building even a good structure on top of a pile of crap will still be a pile of crap. Don't let the previous builder's poor work mess up your work.

If you don't want to pay to haul off the debris you can just pile it in the small pond, cover with some soil from the new pond and have a nice landscape element. Rock garden type deal. That's what I normally do. Why pay to have material hauled away when it can be used on site to make an interesting element I say.

Using wood would be a serious problem for such a large pond. The largest raised wood pond I ever built was 16' long in the longest direction. That's a lot of weight pushing the corners out. At 30" high the 4x6's were bowing and I had to add more strength, but it had to still be close to failure. I torn down that pond a few years later because I couldn't trust it's lifespan to be much more.

 

[QBee]

I have a concrete pond that was built in 2000. I bought the house five years ago & haven't had problems with it leaking. Originally we thought there was a leak, but it was actually in an attached holding pond where the pipe came in to pump the water to a higher filter & pond. After patching it with water leak cement 4 yrs ago, it hasn't been a problem. I'm in Michigan, so it does freeze here. I was able to get pictures from during the construction process which helped troubleshooting tremendously. Not sure how yours was constructed, but thought I would throw it out there that, unless you found the leak, it could actually be elsewhere in the system.

 

[mrsclem]

Qbee- this post was from 2014 but glad you posted your experience with a similar problem!