Photos of expansion project

[D&RW]

7 feet! ohmygod--i'd be dead and buried in it. :biggrin: I think that's a 3 ft ladder and total height from the bottom of the deep end is 68 inches. Water level planned to be 2 in down from top of wall so it'll be 66 inches. deep end is 5 ft X 4.5 feet and then it starts sloping up. The shallow/waterfall end will be about 48 in and the side closest to the house will be about 30 inches. That side is where we plan to put the lillies.

Of course that is how it is planned and "designed". It'll be really interesting to see what it is when water is in it. Last time I planned the bottom to be 48 and because of the way i put in the skimmer and the wall height differences it turned out to be about 42.

 

[koikeepr]

LOL! Photos CAN be deceiving! LOL! Looks waaay deeper than that in the photos!

 

[D&RW]

Some folks say the best way to install the liner is to spread it over the hole and start putting water in it to let it pull down and fit into the hole. I'm a little reluctant to do that because the wall edges are abrasive and might tear the liner. Has anybody just put the liner down in the hole and spread it out from there.

 

[DrDave]

Some folks say the best way to install the liner is to spread it over the hole and start putting water in it to let it pull down and fit into the hole. I'm a little reluctant to do that because the wall edges are abrasive and might tear the liner. Has anybody just put the liner down in the hole and spread it out from there.

I allow mine to fill the hole as best I can, then I start filling and folding as required to get the liner to lay in the best possible attitude.

 

[D&RW]

I'm placing the skimmer right now. Then just a bit of touch up on the walls and sides with underlayment and I'm ready. Last time the liner was smaller and I just "did it". Turned out ok I guess, but I had lots of folds. This time I'll take a bit more time and I plan to tape the folds over to avoid places for anerobes to grow.

I just don't see a way to stretch the whole thing out over the wall. My problem is one side is right up against the fence. Makes it impossible to do that. Maybe I could talk my neighbor into letting me cut down the sections of fence next to the pond :biggrin:. And then I'd rebuild it. We built it together to begin with. Nah, stupid idea.

Hey, what about taking one side of the liner and clamping it to the top of the fence? Or I could put clamps on the liner itself and attach them to pulleys hooked to the fence. Let's see. It's 25 ft wide and the hole is 12. That leaves 6 per side when stretched. The fence is maybe 8. I'd have to have a way to lift the other sides to hold the water. Gad what a vision. almost ridiculous.

So, it seems I'm sort of stuck with putting it into the pond, unfolding it and bringing the edges up and out over the walls as evenly as I can and then starting the fill and the shaping.

the other thing still facing me is the capstones. I've about decided to rent the concrete saw again and cut down the stones used in the walls. I cut 18 last time in less than 3 hours, but it's nasty work. I'm only going to put these on the front, visible side. The other side will be under a deck so I'll probably use whatever comes to hand, e.g. the other part of the cut stones.

 

[Airic]

Not experienced at a liner pond but, would it benefit at all to use hot water on the initial fill to make the liner a little softer for the folding and tucking? Seems with the cooler weather upon us it would be like working with a cold garden hose where it just doesn’t want to cooperate. Might make your job a little more plesant as you will have to be in it to work the liner.

 

[koiguy1969]

i used hot water when i first built my basement pond, it really helped relax the liner, i used one tank full of hot, it was about 2" of water in pond. out in the cold it may not help too much tho.. i guess theres only one way to know...

 

[koikeepr]

right. normally in spring or summer, when you install liner you lay it out in the sun for 20 minutes so it warms up and gets really pliable. Of course, we're close to winter now, so that ain't gonna help. Hot water might have to be the best option here.

 

[D&RW]

Dagnabit. Timing is everything. IF my neighbor had been able to help it'd be in there. We'd have been done in 1/2 the time. Oh, well. I just hope his back is getting better. Been there and done that.

I like the hot water idea although i don't know where I'd get enough. Weather here isn't too cold yet, but a front is on the way. And there's hardly enough sun to warm a liner either. Up this far north the suns transit is way over to the south even at noon so the fence blocks it.

The only fear I have just waiting until Spring is a cave in. I set the stone wall back about 8 inches to try and avoid that. The dirt is pretty firm and packed clay below about 12-18 inches. As the weather gets colder the dirt should get even harder so maybe it's not that big a threat.

In any case, this has been a good lesson in patience and accepting reality. I can't change the weather and I couldn't hurry the build anymore than I did. I guess if we get a few really warm days I'll go ahead and try to put it in somehow, but if not I may just have to wait till Spring.

 

[D&RW]

Well friends, it isn't raining outside, but it's cold and cloudy. Still, I was able to finish setting the skimmer. in the fotos it's also easy to see how i raised the low side of the pond. On the right side, next to the fence I poured a 3 in. layer of concrete and on the left side I cut 18 stones, graduating the last 5 to match the high end on the east side.

It's 12:30 now and it gets dark by 4:30. We were supposed to have some sun. If so I might try to get in some of the remaining underlayment. Otherwise, I wait.

 

[D&RW]

Sunny day. High of 50. Good friend Wally, my neighbor available. And guess what? Liner's in!!!!!!:biggrin: tomorrow I'll fit it as best as i can and fill er up.

 

[koiguy1969]

comin along..no doubt about it!! it looked bigger in your other pix, but thats plenty big...

 

[koikeepr]

which one are you D&RW? First or second pic?

You gotta work all those folds and creases out of the liner. Easiest way to to do that is to get inside of it as it's filling up and slowly spread them out. Yep, you'll have to get into cold water to do this! Sorry! LOL!

You are making progress! Nice!

 

[DrDave]

Keep up the good work!

 

[D&RW]

i'm the guy without the hat. Wally and I debated back and forth for an hour before deciding to try it. my main motivation was fear of a cave in. Like I told Wally, if it caves in I'm done. No way I can afford to have cement guys come in and build a retaining wall.

the rolled liner bundle weighed nearly 300#. We rolled it up a ladder and pushed it over the edge praying it didn't roll down into the deep end. Once we had it in it took awhile to figure out how they folded it. And then unfolding it we found it was still heavy. I'm really, really grateful to him for his help.

isn't it funny how a hole looks so much bigger than when you get the liner in? i had the same impression with the last dig. looked like it was plenty until the liner and water were in. so far I've got about 500 gallons in this expansion and will finish filling it tomorrow. i expect it to be on the order of 4500-5000 gallons, but I may be surprised.

say. do you think I should try and double tape the folds? I've read where this prevents leaving spaces for anerobes so i bought a couple rolls of 3 inch double sided tape. but today i was thinking about it and it occurred to me that unless a person could be sure they were taping the entire fold there'd be the risk of creating genuine pockets that weren't open to the water and definitely could grow baddies. i'm thinking of forgoing the tape and letting the water pressure push the folds down flat.