Water Under Liner

[GBBUDD]

That can be 3 feet wide if you want the look of a dry river bed or it could be 6" wide if it's just for a overflow when it rains in arizona and you don't need a larger channel for the water to run

 

[addy1]

DOES the water get under the liner? From what I can see, your edge is built completely wrong.

@addy1 - can you share your drawing that illustrates how to bring the liner up behind the rocks?

The liner is higher than the surrounding soil. = no rain water flowing into the pond.

 

[addy1]

I have one small area of my pond edge lower than the rest by about a inch. Rocks laid there to keep fish from leaving when we have a good overflow. It overflows past the edge of the pond liner, about a foot of rocks and liner to keep the water from going behind the liner. My yard is a slope the water just runs into the backyard.

 

[mooseo]

I’m sure I sound really dumb here, but I just don’t understand how affecting the height of the pond will change what goes under the pond. If there’s water underneath, wouldn’t I need to change something from underneath?

I’m not trying to doubt you guys, I’m just really confused, that’s all.

It's a function of water pressure. If the pond water level is even with the ground and the soil gets saturated with water, then the pond liner is essentially floating free in the middle of water. If there is even a little bit of groundwater pressure (for instance if there is a slight elevation change across the yard) that is higher than the level of your pond, then the water in the ground is at higher pressure than the water in the pond and will push the liner up.

If you have a couple of inches of rim around the pond that will raise the water level above the surrounding ground and cause the inside of the pond to have higher pressure than the surrounding soil, hence the liner will stay down. The water under the pond will go do whatever it was going to do before you put the pond there... maybe find its way to a nearby stream, or maybe into your basement.

 

[Lisak1]

Sometimes it IS necessary to find a way to drain the water from under a liner - a high water table for example. But based on the way your pond edge is built, the water is more likely just finding it's way there from the edge. A small berm around the pond - especially when the surrounding area slopes to the pond instead of away - will help keep the water from seeping under the liner.

Check out the drawing addy shared - you need to reconstruct your edge so the liner is acting as a barrier to the water flow instead of a funnel. The liner needs to come up behind the rocks and then get folded down and back filled.

 

[GBBUDD]

While none of our art work will make it to the Smithsonian it leaves a little for interpretation.
From what I can see with your pond the area appears to be very wet.

Thus two things would be recommended in your case one is to get a tube preferably one that will not crush with back filling down to the bottom of your pond on the Outside. This will relieve some of the water pressure under the liner if you cave clay type soils then it may do nothing as there's suction working against you.

The other is as has been mention to create a berm around your pond it looks like runoff can slide right into your pond.

 

[combatwombat]

While none of our art work will make it to the Smithsonian

Maybe not in our lifetimes, but never say never!

 

[herzog.drew]

not the best angle of the camera to show it, but I did use what little extra dirt I had to create a berm. I didn’t have as much dirt as I thought, so it’s really not that much higher and the tiny little back section didn’t get any dirt added to it. This week is forecasted for some storms, so I guess I get to find out if this little bit helped at all. Thanks for all the help guys.

 

[SarahT]

not the best angle of the camera to show it, but I did use what little extra dirt I had to create a berm. I didn’t have as much dirt as I thought, so it’s really not that much higher and the tiny little back section didn’t get any dirt added to it. This week is forecasted for some storms, so I guess I get to find out if this little bit helped at all. Thanks for all the help guys.

Nice looking pond, love the dog statue. Is the small center grassy area between the two rocked in falls a dirt planting area? If so, that may not have enough drainage in a rain and so that could be a source of the mud. You may also want to double check that the rocked in falls areas have enough raised edges that they aren't the source of mudflow. In my experience, a pond takes some tinkering before it works perfectly (then, as other members probably agree, one starts wanting a bigger pond, more tinkering.) Good luck.

 

[herzog.drew]

That small area behind the pond is just dirt, yeah. I couldn’t raise that area like the rest just because I didn’t have as much extra dirt as I thought.

With the dog statue, you can see my wiener dog at the bottom of the picture and it’s sad how much wiener dog related items we own thanks to him. Believe it or not, that’s actually 1 of 3 statues. That cute little mutt.

 

[herzog.drew]

So after just a few hours of rain, the pond is 100x worse than it ever was. I’m sick of this damn thing, so thanks for the help everyone, but I’m tired of playing with this thing. It’s wasted too much of my time and money.