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.

Hobbit wrote:
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 no idea how much you'll need in total, but I'd suggest only making
enough at a time to do 6-8 slabs, as it goes off fairly quickly in hot
weather.

Its easier to level the slabs if you use a generous pile under each corner
and the centre of the slab, then point up the exposed edges afterwards. Try
not to get any in the pond, it's very strongly alkaline.

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.

Thanks for the advice, both.
Having dry-laid the slabs (for practice), they are reasonably stable, and
are quite thick (38mm). I intend to lay them on about 1 -1.5 inches mortar,
and hopefully there will be about 9 inches of slab extending over the liner.
There should therefore be enough slab to adhere to the underlying terraine
to stabilise and hold it (I hope)!
I haven't really tamped down the ground onto which the slabs will be laid,
so I think waiting a while will allow any settling to occur. Even if the
mortar doesn't adhere to the ground I think the slabs will be secure enough.

I'm only going to lay slabs around the front and halfway along the 'sides'
of the approximately oval pond. The far side will be edged with heavy
rocks/pebbles, and will be in the form of a rockery.

I hope this all goes to plan!

Thanks once again.

"Paul DeWolf" wrote in message
t...
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.