Leaking pond problem!

4 years ago

We have a pond in the garden which has recently started to leak (we believe it is due to the liner perishing in one area rather than the leak occurring where the pond liner joins the bricks but it could be either). When the brick upstand was built we tucked the liner into it.... so has any one got any good ideas for how we might repair the leak but retain the brick upstand as it is currently. I.e. we would not want to bring a new liner up and over the bricks - if that makes sense).

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Daisy England

4 years ago

Hi Doris. We only filled it up with water at the weekend. It’s had a couple of days and has gone down by around 3” so we can only assume that it is the very top section that wasn’t done again which is the part the big stones are resting on. We left it a couple of weeks to completely dry. This morning yet another order put in for more resin as we have spare fibreglass and paint, so he will have to remove the large edging stones and do that part only next week when we are forecast good weather. We should know in a couple of weeks if it is successful once the water has been emptied and refilled.

We really need to get the fish out of the other pond as it’s overcrowded and in the meantime the heron has helped itself to its dinner out of the pond even throwing the big fish it didn’t want in the middle of the lawn. It has been hard work but hopefully we are on the final stretch. We’ve added some discs to try and stop any future herons landing and eating the fish which you can see in the photo.

Did a couple of images so you can see what I mean regarding large edging stones. If you click on the image it will enlarge. Good luck with yours.

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Comments (8)

Daisy England
4 years ago
Whatever it is I wish you luck. Ponds are a devil to determine their faults.

We started to replace one of ours last summer The liner had perished and we decided to replace it with a fibre glass one as we already had a second pond that was fibre glass and which we’d had no problem with.

It has turned into a nightmare and despite starting it last summer, it leaked, then the weather turned and only 2 days ago we started it all again. Nightmare.

I did pick up some hints and tips by signing up on several Facebook Pond Sites so that might be an option for you.

If the liner has perished (and they don’t last forever) then you will need to replace it.
Sonia
4 years ago
There are pond liner patches you can use to repair a leak, but you have to find the hole first! Otherwise a new liner may be the only option or a made to measure fibreglass one. Hope it is sorted for you and your little goldfish!
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doris181
Original Author
4 years ago
Hi Daisy, thank you so much for your advice - I will look on Facebook - did you “fibreglass” the pond yourself using a “kit”? (didn’t know that such a thing existed until your comments prompted a google search) or get a company to make one for you? Our pond is quite large in diameter (approx 4 metres x 1.2 metre depth) currently below the liner is sand, some carpet underlay which has probably decayed and soil.
doris181
Original Author
4 years ago
Hi Sonia, thank you for your advice - we have tried to locate the area of the leak but not easy - further investigation needed! We would happily re-line but not sure how that would work with the current brick upstanding - the existing liner is attached in between the horizontal brick courses - we wouldn’t want to have to knock the wall down and rebuild it to insert a new one - I will try to find a company to quote fit a fibreglass one. I am reluctant to fill it in as it is a nice feature and as well as the continually multiplying goldfish there are a few koi (the oldest - inherited from my late father - is in her mid 40’s).
Daisy England
4 years ago
We have 2 ponds. The larger one we had fibreglass done by a contractor. When the liner perished in the smaller pond we (or should i say hubby) decided he would prefer to have that done with fibreglass too. He decided to do it himself and it has turned into a nightmare. We started it late summer last year and then the weather changed so we couldn’t finish it. There was a problem with the hardener that you have to pour into the mix and it didn’t go as hard as it should. Therefore the pond leaked.

We started the process again last weekend while the weather was on our side and added more fibreglass matting all around the edges of the pond as we knew the bottom was fine as that was holding water, repainted it all again but this time we are leaving it 2 weeks to cure where before we added water within a couple of days.

Had we not started the process ourselves I would not attempt it again but pay a contractor. All the components to do the job are quite expensive.

I have my fingers crossed that it works for us this time.
doris181
Original Author
4 years ago
Hi Daisy - was your 2nd attempt successful?
mary scanlon
4 years ago
Buy a fake Heron, it may deter the real ones