On 28 Dec 2003 12:56:18 -0800, (Han Chung)
wrote:

Hi,

I'm in the process of building a pond and am currently digging the
hole. A side view of what I have dug is below (I hope the formatting
is comes out OK):

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|________ |
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So basically, it's 2 metres/8 feet wide, 2 metres/8 feet long, half at
a depth of 0.8 metres/2.5 feet and the other half with a depth of 0.4
metres/1.2 feet. The pond's edges are dug at roughly an 80 degree
angle.

My questions:

1. Will the steep sides be a problem and cause too much pressure on
the pond liner? The sides are a sandy/soily material while the bottom
of both the shallow and deep ends are sandstone. I'm planning to get
the Firestone 45mil pond liner.

The side slope has nothing to do with pressure. Pressure comes from
water depth only. If your soil is very sandy (as mine is) you may
want to provide a means to keep it in place. Without some retainer it
might slide to the bottom reaching an equilibrium state of 1:3 slope.

I put concrete block in mine to get vertical sides, with a cross
section that is similar to yours. I put rerod through the holes of
the block to keep them in place until the wate went in. Then I
covered them with protective cloth to keep the liner off the rough
edges. Worked great.


2. With the bottom of the pond being sandstone, will this cause any
problems? How thick a layer of sand would you recommend lining the
hole with before putting in the pond liner?

I would put 2 - 3 inches of sand minimum to make sure that the liner
never contacts the sandstone. However, if you use the protective
material that I described above you can just line the whole thing with
it. That is what I did and I put two layers to make sure.

See my pond and screen at www.anatekcorp.com/garden/pondscreen.htm

John