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#1
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Safe paint for concrete block pond?
For several months now I've been working on a small koi pond for the
back yard. The shell is formed out of concrete block sitting on a 6" thick concrete slab. Total capacity of the pond will be about 1300 gallons with a small waterfall at one end and a skimmer at the other. The concrete block work is now done and I'm turning my attention to painting. Knowing that concrete block is porous, and will raise the alkalinity of the water, I need to find a good paint to cover everything with. My first thought is to use swimming pool paint as it is designed for constant water exposure. Has anyone had any experience with the "Smart Seal" line of paints (http://www.smartsealco.com/pool/)? They have epoxy, acrylic enamel, and synthetic rubber products. This brand caught my attention because it is carried by a local vendor. I contacted the company via e-mail to ask if their paint is approved for fish pond use. Their reply was that it is not approved for fish, but that they have heard of people using it. My guess is that they have just never gone through any type of formal testing for that sort of application. Still, considering that a swimming pool has people in it, you wouldn't think the paint would be allowed to leech toxic chemicals. Has anyone used this or another brand of pool paint in a koi pond? If this is not a good idea, I'd really like to hear of some alternative coatings which I can get in the Eastern US. Thanks! P.S. Sorry if you also read this on rec.ponds, but I was recommended to repost here do to users fleeing the unmoderated group. |
#2
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Safe paint for concrete block pond?
Hi Delbert,
Welcome to rpm. I hope there will be some ponders who can offer you some help on painting your blocks or who can encourage you as you launch other aspects of your pond. Phyllis and I have a cement pond with dense cement and thich walls, so we did not need to seal it. At the bottom of our pond, however, we have an old septic tank. It needed to be sealed with a coat of poly/ fiber cement to close it up (10 years ago). Hard to do back then, but sealed ever since. Good luck with the grand venture. Jim |
#3
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Safe paint for concrete block pond?
On Sun, 13 May 2007 07:08:48 CST, Delbert wrote:
For several months now I've been working on a small koi pond for the back yard. The shell is formed out of concrete block sitting on a 6" thick concrete slab. Total capacity of the pond will be about 1300 gallons with a small waterfall at one end and a skimmer at the other. The concrete block work is now done and I'm turning my attention to painting. Knowing that concrete block is porous, and will raise the alkalinity of the water, I need to find a good paint to cover everything with. My first thought is to use swimming pool paint as it is designed for constant water exposure. Has anyone had any experience with the "Smart Seal" line of paints (http://www.smartsealco.com/pool/)? They have epoxy, acrylic enamel, and synthetic rubber products. This brand caught my attention because it is carried by a local vendor. Epoxy is the one I'm familiar to hearing other fish ponders use locally. Hopefully you will get those with personal experience to follow up. P.S. Sorry if you also read this on rec.ponds, but I was recommended to repost here do to users fleeing the unmoderated group. In droves, I don't even read RP any more. ;-) ~ jan ------------ Zone 7a, SE Washington State Ponds: www.jjspond.us |
#4
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Safe paint for concrete block pond?
Hey Delbert! Welcome to RPM :-)) Looks like you got some good information on RP. I'll be really interested to hear how your pond comes along. Someday this is the type of pond we are looking to build. We figure it would be a good option to put a grate across for grandchild proofing. Looking forward to progress reports! k :-) http://tinyurl.com/6bguh ~ new pond keeper info http://tinyurl.com/yp64db ~ slide show of pond |
#5
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Safe paint for concrete block pond?
Delbert,
How have you anchored your blocks to prevent motion? Jim |
#6
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Safe paint for concrete block pond?
On May 13, 7:19 pm, Phyllis and Jim wrote:
How have you anchored your blocks to prevent motion? That was actually a major mistake of mine. I should have had vertical rebar into the slab, but I didn't have it put in when the slab was wet. The only thing I could do afterward was to core fill the blocks with concrete in the hope of making them heavy enough to resist motion. As the pond is only 4 block deep (2' 8"), I'll hope for the best. |
#7
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Safe paint for concrete block pond?
Did you run rebar through the blocks?
I am concerned for you that even a little motion will produce cracks and leaks. Especially that will be a risk if there are sharp corners. You may find that you would do best if you put a flexible liner that would not care about motion. It woulkd cost more than paint, but would not leak! Have you a bottom drain to wrestle with. Jim |
#8
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Safe paint for concrete block pond?
On May 13, 9:19 pm, Phyllis and Jim wrote:
Did you run rebar through the blocks? I am concerned for you that even a little motion will produce cracks and leaks. Especially that will be a risk if there are sharp corners. You may find that you would do best if you put a flexible liner that would not care about motion. It woulkd cost more than paint, but would not leak! Have you a bottom drain to wrestle with. There is rebar in several vertical runs of blocks (corners and about every 4') as well as cross rebar wherever there are three sections of block coming together (around the skimmer, waterfall, etc). I'm leaning towards the rubberized materials for coating the inside. This should have some give. Also, the block is 8" thick variety which should have less give than 6" or 4" which some may be tempted to use. All in all, this pond is built like a bunker. Once the project is done I plan to put up a website detailing the construction. I started over a year ago building a shed to hold the pump and filter. Block work on the pond itself started during the winter (which was unusually warm). This has been a LONG project. |
#9
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Safe paint for concrete block pond?
In article .com,
Phyllis and Jim wrote: Hi Delbert, Welcome to rpm. I hope there will be some ponders who can offer you some help on painting your blocks or who can encourage you as you launch other aspects of your pond. Phyllis and I have a cement pond with dense cement and thich walls, so we did not need to seal it. At the bottom of our pond, however, we have an old septic tank. It needed to be sealed with a coat of poly/ fiber cement to close it up (10 years ago). Hard to do back then, but sealed ever since. Good luck with the grand venture. Jim I had a bad experience a few years ago with building a small cement pond. Dried cement ended up being toxic for fish. Probably the alkalinity of the cement. Wished I had had the resources of experienced ponders then. -- To reply by email, remove the word "space" |
#10
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Safe paint for concrete block pond?
Glad to hear about the rebar! I appreciate as well how long it takes
to do such a project. If it holds, great. If not, you can always line it. Good luck! We will look forward to seeing the pics. Jim |
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