Problem pond: Help with construction, please
 

The previous owners of our house built an absolutely stunning example
of a horrible pond - it would lose around 40 gallons a day to leaks. We
decided to destroy and replace it, and we would have succeeded too -
had it not been for the fact that the bottom of the pond was built with
reinforced concrete and a clay bottom. The underliner was about as thin
as a trashbag - it would flake off in a high wind.

How can I remove this reinforced concrete, and excavate the clay
underneath the pond? I've tried a 12 pound sledgehammer, crowbar, and a
large pickaxe. All I've succeeded in doing is pulverising it.

The only thing that seems to cut into the clay is the pickaxe, so I'm
in the dark as to how I would remove that as well. I'll update this
topic with pictures of my progress if the need arises.

The pickax is what we used as our
ground is full of rocks, rocks and more
rocks.

Finally DH decided to make the pond
deeper by building up the sides.
He started stripping turf by the side
fence line and now I have roses and butterlfy
bushes planted there.

The sides were built up with turf,
about one foot high and one foot wide) the liner
pulled up and over it.

It protects the pond from run off and gives
a nice place for the dogs to lay down (we
covered some of the liner with turf), the kids
sit on it and tangle their feet in the water. Other areas are covered
with rocks.

You can see a picture of the pond at
www.blogfromthebog.com
check to the right for an article archived under
The Pond.

kathy :-)

I have seen them break up clay on the home shows with a small jackhammer,
you can rent them by the day....

wrote in message
oups.com...
The previous owners of our house built an absolutely stunning example
of a horrible pond - it would lose around 40 gallons a day to leaks. We
decided to destroy and replace it, and we would have succeeded too -
had it not been for the fact that the bottom of the pond was built with
reinforced concrete and a clay bottom. The underliner was about as thin
as a trashbag - it would flake off in a high wind.

How can I remove this reinforced concrete, and excavate the clay
underneath the pond? I've tried a 12 pound sledgehammer, crowbar, and a
large pickaxe. All I've succeeded in doing is pulverising it.

The only thing that seems to cut into the clay is the pickaxe, so I'm
in the dark as to how I would remove that as well. I'll update this
topic with pictures of my progress if the need arises.

Derek Broughton wrote:

Any tool equipment rental shop

Sorry for the redundancy redundancy.
--
derek

Don't give the idiot our secrets Derek!!!!

Derek Broughton wrote:
wrote:


The previous owners of our house built an absolutely stunning example
of a horrible pond - it would lose around 40 gallons a day to leaks. We
decided to destroy and replace it, and we would have succeeded too -
had it not been for the fact that the bottom of the pond was built with
reinforced concrete and a clay bottom. The underliner was about as thin
as a trashbag - it would flake off in a high wind.

How can I remove this reinforced concrete, and excavate the clay
underneath the pond? I've tried a 12 pound sledgehammer, crowbar, and a
large pickaxe. All I've succeeded in doing is pulverising it.


I guess it's a bit late to suggest that you just forget about removing the
concrete and put a decent liner inside it...

Any tool equipment rental shop should be able to rent you an electric
jackhammer. Now, my contractor friend insists it's just as easy to break
concrete with a pick - but I expect there's a trick to it. The electric
jackhammer works well (and isn't anywhere near as noisy as the pneumatic
ones the road crews use).

The only thing that seems to cut into the clay is the pickaxe, so I'm
in the dark as to how I would remove that as well.


And the jackhammer will just keep going.

don't give the idiot away our secrets

Derek Broughton wrote:
wrote:


The previous owners of our house built an absolutely stunning example
of a horrible pond - it would lose around 40 gallons a day to leaks. We
decided to destroy and replace it, and we would have succeeded too -
had it not been for the fact that the bottom of the pond was built with
reinforced concrete and a clay bottom. The underliner was about as thin
as a trashbag - it would flake off in a high wind.

How can I remove this reinforced concrete, and excavate the clay
underneath the pond? I've tried a 12 pound sledgehammer, crowbar, and a
large pickaxe. All I've succeeded in doing is pulverising it.


I guess it's a bit late to suggest that you just forget about removing the
concrete and put a decent liner inside it...

Any tool equipment rental shop should be able to rent you an electric
jackhammer. Now, my contractor friend insists it's just as easy to break
concrete with a pick - but I expect there's a trick to it. The electric
jackhammer works well (and isn't anywhere near as noisy as the pneumatic
ones the road crews use).

The only thing that seems to cut into the clay is the pickaxe, so I'm
in the dark as to how I would remove that as well.


And the jackhammer will just keep going.

Ok, I've placed an order for a 40lb electric Jackhammer this Saturday.
I'm hoping to get some good results out of it, seeing as I was able to
tear up a bit more concrete with a 17lb large crowbar and pick combo.

http://img250.echo.cx/img250/2962/img02887yh.jpg original pond. Notice
the "glass-clear water"
http://img246.echo.cx/img246/5329/img03082ke.jpg progress-(imageshack)
http://img246.echo.cx/img246/3682/img03097xp.jpg progress-(Imageshack)
http://img246.echo.cx/img246/2757/img03112lt.jpg progress-(imageshack)


How would I go about moving the earth underneath the pond? With the
jackhammer you say? *confused*

wrote:

Ok, I've placed an order for a 40lb electric Jackhammer this Saturday.
I'm hoping to get some good results out of it, seeing as I was able to
tear up a bit more concrete with a 17lb large crowbar and pick combo.

http://img250.echo.cx/img250/2962/img02887yh.jpg original pond. Notice
the "glass-clear water"
http://img246.echo.cx/img246/5329/img03082ke.jpg progress-(imageshack)
http://img246.echo.cx/img246/3682/img03097xp.jpg progress-(Imageshack)
http://img246.echo.cx/img246/2757/img03112lt.jpg progress-(imageshack)


How would I go about moving the earth underneath the pond? With the
jackhammer you say? *confused*

No. For that you're going to need either an excavator or a spade and
wheelbarrow. :-(
--
derek

http://img250.echo.cx/img250/2962/img02887yh.jpg original pond. Notice
the "glass-clear water"

I would swear this pond has been on rec.ponds before with the original
owners. Was it the waterfall (in behind the plant if there is one) that
leaked, or the whole pond? What is the orange cup in the middle? ~ jan


See my ponds and filter design:
www.jjspond.us

~Keep 'em Wet!~
Tri-Cities WA Zone 7a
To e-mail see website

Oh goodness, yes.. We had problems with the waterfall as well. The pond
came in absolute horrible quality when we moved in; nearly as bad as it
was in the first picture, save for for times as many fish. Ended up
just building a bypass with some old PVC and tubing, but that was ages
ago... more pictures, more progress!

It turned out that the waterfall they built wasnt protected against
leaks of any type, but more rather a giant rock mass cemented together.
It wasnt on any sort of liner, and hence water would simply drift into
the soil. Of course, you've also seen the state of the liner underneath
the pond; cracked beyond all belief. The liner wasnt doing anything
useful, whatsoever.
http://img252.echo.cx/img252/4719/dcp007633oq.jpg (the pond, as close
as the original condition as possible. I believe there was a little
giant pump with a shoebox sized prefilter along with a brick of barley
to boot. The main filtration is now the holding tank's filter.)
http://img142.echo.cx/img142/9930/img02101em.jpg (the original hole
that caught our attention)
http://img134.echo.cx/img134/9948/img03122lh.jpg (More pond progress.
Those chunks are quite heavy.. I need to pulverise them each
separately)
http://img134.echo.cx/img134/2263/img03152jb.jpg (Holding tank water,
now Chamomile tea color. I hope this doesnt last, but its a great jump
from chocolate cream.)

I'm getting through this cement at about two square feet a day. I
should be done by this Friday, leaving ample time to excavate. In the
mean time, I'm trying to decide how I should keep such a disaster from
happening again, and have been planning on building a filtration system
that consists of a homemade bead filter, homemade "bioreactor (large
tank of large surface area material), and a plenty-large homemade
vortex.

Water quality in the small holding tank is also degrading quite
rapidly; I believe its going over its first bacterial bloom. The fish
are atleast eating now, which is nice..

Thanks for your help! More pictures, content, more updates on the way.

wrote in message
oups.com...
The liner wasnt doing anything
useful, whatsoever.
http://img252.echo.cx/img252/4719/dcp007633oq.jpg (the pond, as close
as the original condition as possible.
==================
There may be server problems but only this picture is available.
--
McKoi.... the frugal ponder...
EVERYONE: "Please check people's headers for forgeries
before flushing." NAMES ARE BEING FORGED.
Do not feed the trolls.
~~~ }((((o ~~~ }{{{{o ~~~ }(((((o

Water quality in the small holding tank is also degrading quite
rapidly; I believe its going over its first bacterial bloom. The fish
are atleast eating now, which is nice..

Don't forget the Amquell (ammonia detox additives) a little salt for
nitrite detox and 10% water changes every few days. Test the water, and if
you don't have a test kit, do the above and order some. ;) In the meantime,
chisel away. ~ jan

~Power to the Porg, Flow On!~

In reply to both of your queries:
The server, or rather the image hosting site I am using is called
imageshack (.us), and hosts images for free. Be that as it may, the
images you're trying to view are huge - I'm quite sorry about that,
however I always find it annoying when an image online isnt the size of
a poster, and I'd much rather change that than leave things the way
they are.

-Your load times will be SLOW, the images are nearly a megabyte in
size-
http://img231.echo.cx/img231/8454/dcp007460ol.jpg (The fish, nearly two
years ago. Its been that long?)
As for additives... doh! what was I thinking.. I'll get right on that.
Water quality was so above-par on the second day of work, I didnt think
any more of it. Chisel away I will.

Your help is always appreciated.. and compensated for graciously by
many photos and bits of media content.

Victory! The cement is finally out of its foundation, and ready to be
moved off site.
However, I have a grave problem.. upon measuring the doorway and the
width of the excavator, I've come to the conclusion that it WONT FIT
THROUGH THE DOOR. grr..
http://img135.echo.cx/img135/7014/img03192ik.jpg (Finally done! The
rock on the right needs to be carted away.)
http://img135.echo.cx/img135/1706/img03228ln.jpg (entrance in which
digging device must fit through)
http://img135.echo.cx/img135/2662/img03269er.jpg (absolutely beautiful
picture of the waterfall I've been dismantling. not much to brag over.)

Can anyone recommend any suitable replacements to an excavator, in all
of its 1-day-finish-the-job-and-have-fish-next-week goodness? If not..
I'll be tearing down a fence too. .

As always, more pictures and media with every update. I promise.