There is a local quarry that can deliver river rock by dump truck. I estimate I need 10-15 tons of river rock for my pond. If they deliver it, can I have them dump it directly on top of the pond liner or is that likely to damage it? Note they aren't going to dump carefully, they just backup, tip the bed, and drop off 10 tons at a time. If they have to dump on the lawn nearby the pond instead, I think it would take 3-4 days of shoveling the gravel to move it to the pond.
Will unloading 10 tons of river rock directly into a pond damage the liner?
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Mmathis
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I have no idea, but if it was my pond, I would wheel barrow it into the pond rather than have it dumped. Like you say, the workers aren’t going to be gentle!
What kind of liner did you say you have?
What kind of liner did you say you have?
River rock is generally every rock under the sun that has been ripped out by glacial till and then dumped at a stream and rock tumbled by the river for centuries this nice smooth rock . HOWEVER some of that rock especially when stressed can split in half and usually have very sharp edges. Dumping onto fabric can help remove the potential of a tear or cut but myself i did it primarily the hard way and did that step by hand are you talking in the bog or in the pond ? and once the rock is in the pond whats the chance you'll be digging out the rock moving it around and tearing it with the shovel and not even know it
Just to add there usually is all kinds of dirt in the load too, unless you go to the quarry and make sure the loader operator doesn’t scoop the bottom of the pile, which is what the usually do. The rock will split as when stressed as GBbudd said, getting it dump out of a truck is going to stress the rock causing some of it to chip and split.
just dump it on the ground near the pond, is the safest bet, and the least amount of work in the long run.
just dump it on the ground near the pond, is the safest bet, and the least amount of work in the long run.
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hose and lots of water
You can buy a storm window grill thats just happens to be about 1/4" spacing thats strong enough to support on three sides thats high enough to get a compound bucket under on the bottom edge., Shovel your stone onto the grill it will hold enough stone to fill a compound bucket/ 5 gallon pail. rinse run your hand over it rotating the stone quickly and wala washed stone. tip the grill dumping your rock into the compound bucket. Just washing the pile won't do it it just makes the top layer pretty and you already have some pretty dirty rock in there. i would try to rise off as much of that as possible and pump it out before the workers arrive the next day
Here's what we found - most of the dirt and the small pieces of broken gravel naturally sifted to the bottom of the pile as we shoveled through it. The tarp under the pile was full of the stuff we didn't want in the pond once the stone was all moved. The dust - well I wasn't washing all that tone and it wasn't an issue.
Get it in the pond, get some water in there and if it looks too dirty, pump it back out and fill it again.
Get it in the pond, get some water in there and if it looks too dirty, pump it back out and fill it again.
I must have missed the picture...
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Quite the apropos ad. Would be an expensive rinse-off though.
TheFishGuy
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never knew gpf had ads, never got one, but quite the funny quicedence!
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When I built my bog, I had to use a wheel barrow to transport the river stone from my truck which was in the front of the house to the pond in the back. Three yards was my total. I only filled the wheel barrow about 2/3.
I used my garden hose to spray the stone in the wheel barrow. Then I shook it a bit, tipped it up and drained it. I rinsed each wheel barrow load three times.
When I started up the bog, the pond got real murky (even with all that rinsing), but by the next day it dissipated.
The pump is 3600 gph. Pond is approximately 1700-1800 gallons
I used my garden hose to spray the stone in the wheel barrow. Then I shook it a bit, tipped it up and drained it. I rinsed each wheel barrow load three times.
When I started up the bog, the pond got real murky (even with all that rinsing), but by the next day it dissipated.
The pump is 3600 gph. Pond is approximately 1700-1800 gallons
Mmathis
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Back to the OP’s original question: would dumping 10 tons of this rock in all at one time damage the liner? Somewhere along the way, I seem to recall that @Hop-frog was going to be using a 20 mil liner, possibly other than HPDM. I think we can all agree that there will be a lot of crud and rock dust involved, but is there any potential risk to the liner by using the dump-it-all-in-at-one-time method?