Building a pond - step by step - mostly complete post71

[TLWR]

Ok, in the end, it doesn't look like we did squat today.
But we put in 24 pieces of rebar - cut rebar, drilled holes into the timbers and then pounded them in.
Only the pond portion is done. Need to put the liner in before we do the rebar in the filter box

Dh helped big time today.


Some rebar sticking up, some already in

Couple of pieces left

Dh helping

 

[Big Dreamer]

I needa build something like thiss!!!!!!!! Great job so far!! What filter are you getting for the ducks? or are you just gonna drain it?

 

[gofasterstripe]

Thats not a pond, that an Olympic sized Duck pool

Looking good so far

 

[Big Dreamer]

Quote:
SOOOO TRUUUUUUUUE

 

[TLWR]

Blue watched us for a while. I wrapped her back up this afternoon and she camped out under the truck for a while and then stood under the tree and watched what we were up to. She's in the first pic from today (behind the yard cart)

Quote:
The back box portion is going to be a skippy-esk type of filter. Hopefully it will deal with some of the duck poop and keep the water clear.
There will be a drain in the filter and in the pond, so if the pond needs to be drained, I can do a portion of it and attach a hose to put the water to the garden.
We have a pump that I think we are going to put in a type of pre-filter box - expecting to clean that 1-2x a week. The filter I'm hoping to clean once a month, but if it is every weekend, that works for me.


Quote:
Dh keeps saying it's a big pond for 3 little ducks. I just nod and say yes and think it is an excellent size for 6 ducks

 

[gofasterstripe]

I was going to say something along those lines too but didnt want to upset your hubby apple cart hehehe. You could get 10 or more ducks in there. 30 or 40 maybe!! Maybe I can bring my ducks round and have a pool party

 

[tennesseechickie]

LOVE IT! Cant wait to see more progress! Depending on how yours works out, I may have to build one of these for my 2 duckies! Then I can get more too!

 

[donnavee]

I'm anxiously watching this as well. I would love to have something larger and with a filter that at least kept the water kind of clean for a week or so. Glad you weren't affected by those nasty tornadoes. I lived in Birmingham for many years and my son still lives in that area.

 

[TLWR]

When nobody called for me to head to school today, I watered the lawn, had some breakfast and then went out to work on the pond before it gets too hot.


We bought some flooring underlayment to use as the pond underlayment. I was going to hit the local carpet stores to ask for scraps of padding, but DH was afraid it would draw moisture into it and cause the pad to get nasty. I was then going to get the blue sheets of insulation and cut to fit and give myself a good 1/4-1/2" of padding around. In the end, this is what I found. One roll, cut in half is easily lining the edge of the pond and will do the filter box as well. I'm not doing the bottom as that is all sand which is on top of hard dirt/clay/rocks where nothing has really grown and we pulled the top layer of sod and stuff away to help with that anyway. I have been told by pond people that using the 45mil EPDM as a liner I wouldn't really need an underlayment anyway, but better safe than sorry I guess.

I forgot to take the pic until I lugged the box of liner out and opened it and started to unfold it
So - here's what you can see of the lining on the inside of the timbers wrapped over to the top

And yes, my supervisors were out with me again LOL


Then stretch that pond liner out over the pond

DH asked last night how big the liner was and asked why I didn't order bigger. I was pretty confident of my ability to get this pretty close and still had some room in there, but if you build a pond, might not be a bad idea to build it smaller so you have more OOOPs room LOL


And then take your shoes off, keep the dogs out and stretch it out so you are sure that sucker is going to fit and then take a break for water and let the sun come out from behind the cloud and bake that rubber liner in to make it a bit more friendly to work with by yourself.

I need to install a drain as well and that's going to suck. I don't really want to cut into the liner, but everybody in the ponding world says add a drain if you can. I think I'll be a wuss and wait for DH to get home and do that... maybe. Or fill my drain hole back in and skip it and just use a sump pump if we need to drain it LOL
But next step is to cut the liner to get the drain in and then pull it back a little to fill the hole in around the underside of the drain, put the liner back and then start to fill it a bit to finish stretching the liner into the form and tack the liner at the top and put the top boards on. Then move to the filter box. (Filter box sits on top of the timbers of the back of the pond, so I need to attach the pond liner on top of that timber before putting the boards for the filter back on.

 

[terrilhb]

That is so awesome. You are doing a great job. I so love your dogs. They are so adorable. Thanks for sharing.