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Message: [QUOTE="fishin4cars, post: 127292, member: 3097"] [b]Rebar[/b] I don't have enough info to understand the patio tie in so I'll make some general comments... I don't think the patio should be tied into the pond wall. I'm not sure on code, but I'd bet it wouldn't be allowed. Concrete patios can't be tied into a house foundation. And certainly at this point you wouldn't want to tie what could be a properly built patio to the incorrectly built pond wall. The risk is the pond wall might only last 1, 5, 10, 20 years. Tying into the patio means it would probably fail right along with the pond wall. Instead there should be an expansion joint between the pond wall and patio. Personally, I like something like a 1" gap between the two which I plant flowers or flag stone over. I like the gap because I'll probably want to run sprinkler pipe or electric there someday. Always seems to work that way. It's a rookie mistake to think tying the patio and wall together adds strength. Proper building means each structure is stable on it's own. Rookies seem to understand they aren't building correctly and like to "add strength" but they're actually making things worst. I've done the rookie mistakes too. As a side note on rookie mistakes...when the patio is built you sure do some research on whether wire mesh should be used. Ask the building department. I've seen local codes change over the last 30 years from requiring mesh to prohibiting mesh. The thinking is that for the cost of the mesh the slab can be made a little thicker and therefore strong enough without the mesh. That eliminates the rust risk and also greatly reduces removal costs and patio are remodeled often. Your contractor seems mesh happy. This is the one thing I missed in the reading and didn't catch in time. and yes it was done, tied the patio directly into the pond wall. makes complete sense the way you explained it but I must have missed it while I was reading through. all the rebarb was cut off and covered with a minimum of 1/2" of mortar. Only one piece was 1/2" as it was already incased in cement and that was at a high spot so I grinded it off and covered with just enough motar to level the walls. that's just going to be a shelf for the liner to sit on and then a cap is going on top so hopefully it wont rust under ther as it will be ver limited moisture in that area. We filled each run in the drystack wall with hand mixed cement and then vibrated each run. also filled behind the wall the next day and vibrated it down as well. we had extra cement on the truck ofter the second truck so decided to go ahead and fill that void in as I really need some good support ther for some water fall rocks as well. All in all It's looking better. BY FAR, NOT what I invisioned and I am still disappointed that I wasn't able to locate a professional to help in this project. [/QUOTE]

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