I had a horrible time with mortar. We used it on the liner with tumbled
flagstone on top. The mortar didn't adhere to the liner and ended up just
cracking and falling into the pond. There also wasn't enough of a solid
base under it, so we had low spots, so we couldn't fill the pond up as high
as we wanted.

I don't know how much excess liner you have or how wide you're planning to
make the edge, but I don't think just an inch depth is enough weight to
provide a secure edge, especially if you're planning on stepping on it.

We ended up putting stepping stones UNDER the liner to provide a fairly
solid base, then very large tumbled flagstones on top. We removed all the
mortar and haven't replaced it. It became more trouble than it was worth.

If I did try something like that again, I'd build forms to ensure it went
where I intended and I'd use concrete and plenty of it. Actually, I'd
probably be tempted to get a professional.

I hope you have less pain than we did. I'd recommend not starting to mix
mortar until you felt confident that you knew how it was going to hold up.
We love our pond, but the time we spent building and rebuilding and
rebuilding the edge is my biggest regret.

Here's a link to a pictu
http://home.attbi.com/~pdewolf/image...3/Image001.jpg

Paul

"Hobbit" wrote in message
...
Hi everyone
I've just excavated a pond (about 12 by 7 feet), and have 3/4 filled it
with
water ( a mixture of 'old' water from an established pond with tap water,
about 50/50).I though this way I would be able to transfer the fish from
the
old pond quickly to the new (I've also added tap water to the old pond to
restore the water level).
My problem now is laying paving slabs on the exposed liner around the edge
of the pond. I've read several books and articles about pond construction,
and they all say, "lay edging slabs or pebbles or rocks on a mortar base.
Is
it really just a case of putting a bed of mortar about an inch thick
directly on the liner, and putting the slab onto the mortar?
I've no idea how much mortar to make (I estimate the pond has a
circumference of about 35 linear feet)

I've bought several bags of cement (25kg each), and have about 5 bags of
soft sand (40kg each).
The mortar would I think be made from 1 bag of cement + 3 bags of sand
(plus
plasticiser), but how many slabs would this lay??

Any advice would be most welcome to a first timer!

Thanks.