Above ground pond ideas
 

I want to build a pond on my deck and am wondering if anyone has any
ideas. I'm aiming for a 3' x 6' footprint, about 2.5' deep. I'm
considering building this out of thick glass, or galvanized & welded
steel, or a strong plywood frame with standard pond liner inside it.
The advantage of the homemade approach is I can make it to the exact
dimensions I want, and build in the landscaping around it (i.e., with
attached planter boxes as opposed to flower pots).

Has anyone out there built a pond above ground this size? Any ideas
for the design?
Many thanks...

On 25 Jun 2005 18:59:07 -0700, wrote:

I want to build a pond on my deck and am wondering if anyone has any
ideas. I'm aiming for a 3' x 6' footprint, about 2.5' deep. I'm
considering building this out of thick glass, or galvanized & welded
steel, or a strong plywood frame with standard pond liner inside it.
The advantage of the homemade approach is I can make it to the exact
dimensions I want, and build in the landscaping around it (i.e., with
attached planter boxes as opposed to flower pots).

Has anyone out there built a pond above ground this size? Any ideas
for the design?
Many thanks...

Sounds like something Derek is doing. Hopefully he'll respond. ~ jan

~Power to the Porg, Flow On!~

Here's mine: http://www.math.ohio-state.edu/~ccunning/garden2.jpg

The pond area is only 3' x 3' x 2' but you can expand it. It's built
with a 2x4 frame (pressure treated of course) and then sided with 1x6
appearance grade pressure treated wood. Trim is 1x4 appearance grade.
The pond area has a 45 mil pond liner stapled around the top. I'll warn
you though, this doesn't work all that well... A flat piece of pond
liner doesn't like making a cube shape (especially in ours, which has a
shelf as well) and we have a lot of bunched up liner at the top. If I
had it to do again, I would build a shelf all the way around the top so
we could add rocks to hide the bunching, or I'd just do it out of
fiberglass. As it is I plan to try and find some plastic baskets I can
hang off the sides and put plants in it to hide it. Still looks good
though, but I'm a perfectionist.

I just built a pretty standard deck box design. The frame is just a
cube 2x4 frame, screwed together with 3" deck screws.The vertical
corner pieces are notched out so the horizontal members sit on little
support ledge so it's nice and sturdy. Crossbracing every few feet. I
screwed on the siding and then put the 1x4 trim over the screws to hide
them, attatching it with 8 penny galvanized finish nails slightly
counter sunk.

Pretty simple :)

You'll love having a pond on your deck.
We have one o n our patio that used to be a
spa/hot tub. I got tired of messing
with it so we turned it into a pond.
It's been six years now and we love it.
http://radioheaven.homestead.com/Cement_Pond1.html

Ron

I built an 8 X 8 out of stacked Landscape filters. It sits on ground, so no
worry about weight. Used long lag bolts to secure it, put old carpet
padding inside the frame, and used a retired swimming pool liner. Has been
going 3 years now-doing fine ! On the deck, I would stress reinforcing the
structure ! This thing is Heavy ! Also, plan your plumbing ahead of
installing ! Good Luck, and you WILL enjoy it !--J.B.
wrote in message
oups.com...
I want to build a pond on my deck and am wondering if anyone has any
ideas. I'm aiming for a 3' x 6' footprint, about 2.5' deep. I'm
considering building this out of thick glass, or galvanized & welded
steel, or a strong plywood frame with standard pond liner inside it.
The advantage of the homemade approach is I can make it to the exact
dimensions I want, and build in the landscaping around it (i.e., with
attached planter boxes as opposed to flower pots).

Has anyone out there built a pond above ground this size? Any ideas
for the design?
Many thanks...

Meant to say Landscape Timbers !!!
"Jim Beasley" wrote in message
news:RYyve.105958$xm3.75247@attbi_s21...
I built an 8 X 8 out of stacked Landscape filters. It sits on ground, so
no worry about weight. Used long lag bolts to secure it, put old carpet
padding inside the frame, and used a retired swimming pool liner. Has been
going 3 years now-doing fine ! On the deck, I would stress reinforcing the
structure ! This thing is Heavy ! Also, plan your plumbing ahead of
installing ! Good Luck, and you WILL enjoy it !--J.B.
wrote in message
oups.com...
I want to build a pond on my deck and am wondering if anyone has any
ideas. I'm aiming for a 3' x 6' footprint, about 2.5' deep. I'm
considering building this out of thick glass, or galvanized & welded
steel, or a strong plywood frame with standard pond liner inside it.
The advantage of the homemade approach is I can make it to the exact
dimensions I want, and build in the landscaping around it (i.e., with
attached planter boxes as opposed to flower pots).

Has anyone out there built a pond above ground this size? Any ideas
for the design?
Many thanks...

On 25 Jun 2005 18:59:07 -0700, wrote:

I want to build a pond on my deck and am wondering if anyone has any
ideas. I'm aiming for a 3' x 6' footprint, about 2.5' deep.

It will weigh 3,000 pounds full. Take care in your engineering here.

steel, or a strong plywood frame with standard pond liner inside it.

The liner makes it waterproof, although I recommend you epoxy /under/
the liner to be sure. Wood and water are not friends.

As for the structural material around it, I believe that you have
great flexibility. You don't have to get into steel at all. I just
checked Greg Bickal's "Do It Yourself Pond CD", and he built his
indoor holding tanks in his basement with 2x8s (screwed, not
nailed!) and 1/2 ply on the inside.

One thing you want to do in advance is be sure how you want to plumb
and filter this thing.

If it were me, I might build it according to above spec, but then do
something like lay overlapping cedar or redwood siding down the
outside, to match your deck.

As an aside, I think this is a fine idea, with the potential of
nicely contemplating your deck if done right. Lots of options for
doing something pretty here.

C//

What zone are you in? If you are above Zone 6, you have to anticipate
freeze problems. I am in Zone 5, and my 4X6 3.5 deep 3/4 inch plywood
pond has 3.5 inches of foam board insulation betwen the inner and
outer walls, and I put a 100 watt aquarium heater in the water in the
winter and cover it with a two inch thick foam insulation board. It
never goes under 40 degrees, even when it's below zero outside. I also
have foam board under the liner, but I don't know if that helps or
hurts-- maybe the earth heat would keep the pond warmer.

I'm planning to make a 8X8 four feet deep pond this fall, same
construction, regular 4X8 CDX plywood and treated horizontal studs
screwed together at the ends and to the plywood, and rubber liner.
Just like you would make a concrete form. I am thinking of digging a
hole in middle under the pond so it would be five or six feet deep in
middle. The liner does bunch up in the corners but that's only a minor
appearnace problem, not a functional problem.

My pond is not on my deck, it's next to my deck, so I can look down
into the pond from the deck. Or jump in if the spirit moves me.

gene wrote:

What zone are you in? If you are above Zone 6, you have to anticipate
freeze problems. I am in Zone 5, and my 4X6 3.5 deep 3/4 inch plywood
pond has 3.5 inches of foam board insulation betwen the inner and
outer walls, and I put a 100 watt aquarium heater in the water in the
winter and cover it with a two inch thick foam insulation board. It
never goes under 40 degrees, even when it's below zero outside. I also
have foam board under the liner, but I don't know if that helps or
hurts-- maybe the earth heat would keep the pond warmer.

Intuitively, I would say it hurts. But I don't want to build two identical
ponds (save for foam underneath) to find out :-)

My pond is not on my deck, it's next to my deck, so I can look down
into the pond from the deck. Or jump in if the spirit moves me.

Exactly what mine's going to be.
--
derek

What zone are you in? If you are above Zone 6, you have to anticipate
freeze problems. I am in Zone 5, and my 4X6 3.5 deep 3/4 inch plywood
pond has 3.5 inches of foam board insulation betwen the inner and
outer walls, and I put a 100 watt aquarium heater in the water in the
winter and cover it with a two inch thick foam insulation board. It
never goes under 40 degrees, even when it's below zero outside. I also
have foam board under the liner, but I don't know if that helps or
hurts-- maybe the earth heat would keep the pond warmer. ...


What kind of fish will you keep? If they are koi or goldfish, they are
quite tolerant of icy water. Leaving a 100 watt heater on all winter adds
up to quite a bit of energy and $$$ over the course of the winter.

You can let the surface mostly freeze over, just keep a hole open with a
floating 25 watt heater, and use a bubbler to provide gas exchange. To
prevent the pressure of the ice from bursting the walls of your pond, float
a couple of small logs in the water.

Good luck.

I'm in San Francisco, CA: Zone 9 I think. Doesn't freeze here but once
every 10 years, for a night or 2.
Thanks for the great suggestions for building, but I found out that my
deck won't be able to hold the quantity and depth of water I was aiming
for. It's standard construction that will hold ~60lbs/square foot.
The pond, by my calculations, would be approximately 156lbs/sq foot (a
tank 6' long x 3' wide x 2.5' deep, which would hold 337 gallons. That
comes out to 2800 lbs total, over 18 sq ft., or 156 lbs/ sq ft.)
So, I could do a pond about 8" deep. Sounds more like a racoon feeder
than a pond....

for. It's standard construction that will hold ~60lbs/square foot.
The pond, by my calculations, would be approximately 156lbs/sq foot (a
tank 6' long x 3' wide x 2.5' deep, which would hold 337 gallons. That
comes out to 2800 lbs total, over 18 sq ft., or 156 lbs/ sq ft.)

Can you get under the deck and reinforce it?

C//

It's standard construction that will hold ~60lbs/square foot.
The pond, by my calculations, would be approximately 156lbs/sq foot (a


It must be more than 60 lbs per sq foot...
That means that a 200 lb man standing on one
foot would break through the deck???
It's GOT to more than 60 lbs per sq foot.

Ron

It must be more than 60 lbs per sq foot...
That means that a 200 lb man standing on one
foot would break through the deck???

His weight will distrubute over an area larger
than a foot. The answer to your question is more
obvious, put this way: if his deck is four hundred
square feet (20x20), and he puts one hundred people
on it, what do you think will happen?

A four hundred square foot deck, rated at 60 lbs
per foot, is capable of supporting 24,000 pounds.
That's roughly 6 F150 trucks!

And yet... that's only 120 200 pound people.

Preferably not bouncing.

And I wouldn't try that, myself.

Termites and stuff.

You never know.

C//

Even though it sounds like the idea has been done away with due to weight
issues on the deck, I just thought I would add some pics of an above ground
pond that a friend and I built three (?) years ago. I was all pressure
treated 4x4's, re-bar, lag bolts, sand, foam insulation, and a pond liner.
It's been going strong for him since we built it!

http://icanhelp56.homestead.com/GenePond010.html

--
G.D.Smith
Harpers Ferry, WV

FOR SALE: 2003 Swee****er 22' Pontoon Boat
http://icanhelp56.homestead.com/gs_pontoon01.html

FOR SALE: 1999 Fleetwood Mallard 37' Travel Trailer
http://icanhelp56.homestead.com/Mallard001.html

wrote in message
oups.com...
I want to build a pond on my deck and am wondering if anyone has any
ideas. I'm aiming for a 3' x 6' footprint, about 2.5' deep. I'm
considering building this out of thick glass, or galvanized & welded
steel, or a strong plywood frame with standard pond liner inside it.
The advantage of the homemade approach is I can make it to the exact
dimensions I want, and build in the landscaping around it (i.e., with
attached planter boxes as opposed to flower pots).

Has anyone out there built a pond above ground this size? Any ideas
for the design?
Many thanks...