A very wise call.
Thanks I know it's going to take a lot more rock than I have. I will be making several trips to get more rocks I at least was thinking it would take 10 trips. For the walls at 5ft I was planing to stack the boulders which are aprox 12in diameter and some larger some smaller mixed placing gravel and foam behind and in between to lock them in and just stacking them so they are not able to fall forward saw a video from the pond guy hopefully they will stay in place. I calculated aprox 5 boulders high so I think it will work just need lots more of them. Here are some update pictures finally reached 5ft deep its not real wide when I get the rocks in so i'm trying to see if I can dig more on the left to widen it. I wish I could dig more to the right but I put in some electrical lines to an outlet a few years ago and its in my way now. I need to redo my patios gazebo hanging garden whatever it's called as the wood is rotting so I will probably move it over and make more space for the pond. I know it's not the way most people work but I am very methodical and I am just trying to get the beginning of my falls laid out the rest will come together after the liner is in place. In the first picture you can see the large rock that will sit in front of the brick framing the flat rock on the right its very heavy so I will wait till I have my liner in place. Also removed a really huge rock best way if you don't have a backhoe is to roll it up onto a stack of bricks and then the other way onto a higher stack of bricks until it is out of your hole. Lots of work but I'm enjoying it.
This sounds similar to my build. The drop from the top edge of the lowest rock of the waterfall to the pond bottom is probably in the range of 4-5 ft. As my location has very sandy soil, I first put a vertical stack of cinder block under the waterfall to hold the sand in place while rocking in the pond. I angled it just slightly back to try to prevent any potential forward movement. The liner went on top of the blocks (covering the face) and the rocks I then placed in front of that. I tried to place the largest rocks at the bottom of the pond as I worked my way up, though I did save a rather big one for just beneath the waterfall to give sort of a sheer face effect. Once I had all the rock work done, I did use some foam in the larger gaps to try to lock things in a little better.
Do you have any pictures of your pond?
In the picture below, the waterfall enters the pond above the rocks at the top of the image. The light that's resting on the top of the rocks was eventually placed at the bottom of the waterfall to illuminate it from below. You can see that I tried to use larger rocks in that section and angled them back ever so slightly. I hope to post some new pics of the finished build soon. I had some annoying leaks in the waterfall that I had to track down.
Looks very nice so far can't wait to see it finished. more of a stacked stone look and should have no problems falling where my walls will have rather large boulders 10" - 12" but am trying to collect some smaller sizes for variety and and some really small rock to fill in the voids. I may try sloping my walls just slightly but im not sure yet. I know most people especially without heavy equipment don't attempt getting large rocks but just don't feel it would look right without. Here are some more rock I got this last weekend.
The first pond I had there was no underlayment and in the bottom I had a smooth brick under the liner and a flat rock on top of the liner which would rock slightly back and forth It was only until I took everything apart to build this new pond that I discovered a hole in the liner. I guess from walking on that stone it wore a hole as it rubbed the brick and I realized why my pond was leaking. Why I had done it this way is beyond me I know now what I did wrong. This time I will be using an underlayment but also puting some on top of the liner under large heavy or sharp rocks. Better to do it right the first time I think than to have costly issues later. But I think your probably OK I had some similar rocks in my pond and had no issues just that liner in between the two stone and brick.
