Leaking pond!!

[tatty_head]

hey

we are building a pond for our big end of year show and it is leaking. we used fibre glass and we think it wasnt left to dry long enough. we are now trying to fix the leaks.we tryed sillicon and that failed can any one suggest anything to solve the leaking. our design doesnt want to use pond liner as he wants the bottom of the pond to be blune or dark green not black.

 

thanks

nicky

[Cougar]

It depends on how many and how big they are. Resin is used to seal leaks on canoes and such, it is clear and waterproof. So if you have any of the resin left from making the glass fibre. However this will take a long time to do if you have more than a few small leaks. Personally I hate the stuff and try and avoid using it but for clear results its probably your best bet. If you don't mind a few black patches and your leaks are not to bad epoxy putty (can't remember where I got it from sorry sets fast and is tough when set, takes a bit of getting used to though.

 

HTH

 

Evan

 

Edit - Make sure the fibre glass is completly dry before you try else your patches will come away and it will leak again

[paulears]

I'm assuming you have emptied the pond, before trying to fix it? If it is a fibreglass pond you've made on a mould, then the inside should be smooth where the resin touched the mould - repairs direct to the hardened resin will need the top surface removing to allow the new resin to key properly - otherwise, repairs should be on the underside where the fibreglass is probably still visible. If it leaks, it is almost certainly a gap where not enough layers of mat were used, or the resin wasn't worked into the mat properly. A repair using new matt, with more resin is perfectly ok - if you do this on the underneath, it also won't be visible. Did you use coloured resin? Tell us more about how, and where it is leaking from - and how you made it in the first place.

 

Safety issues - did you calculate how much the water weighs - fibreglass ponds need supporting properly (in the ground, the soil/sand supports the weight very evenly. If you have yours freestanding - you could find the weight of water has cracked the fibreglass if it flexed once the water was in?

 

My maths is a little rusty - but a cubic metre of water - so a pond about a foot deep, nine feet long, three feet wide weights getting on for a ton! Any pedenats who want to do the maths, please join in.

 

Any uneven support underneath with this kind of weight could easily crack it!

[ampcats]

if you are taking the pond out, how about putting a liner under the pond - as per normal, the pond liner needs to be sitting on a thin layer of soft sand or the initial settling of the water could stretch / tear the liner on small stones / reminants of root etc.

 

in the ground, the soil/sand supports the weight very evenly

 

is correct - if your hole matches the pond shape very closely - if not, for each inch underwater you go, you have an extra 0.0361Psi to add to the standard atmospheric pressure of 14.7Psi.... (or .00254Kg/cm sq to add to the 10Kg/cm sq ) of water trying to bend a couple of square inches of fibreglass out half an inch here, and a couple of inches there... straining the whole thing. remember that despite this weight, actors can still crack it if not settled in - all that water is evenly distributed by depth - the force from the ball of a submerged actor's foot on the bottom is not...

 

the liner needs to go up to ground level (or at least above the highest water level when in use) or you may lose a little water - but you will eventually find out where the topmost hole is... (Eureka!)

 

phew - both archimedes principle and Pascal's law covered in one post... must be a first

[Seano]

our design doesnt want to use pond liner as he wants the bottom of the pond to be blune or dark green not black.

 

If your pond is well supported (already lots of good comments about that), I don't see why you shouldn't use clear or blue visqueen as a pond liner. (I'm sure it used to be possible to get pond-liner in blue, maybe its out of fashion now though.)

 

Sean

x

[the kid]

Yeh as Sean says you can get blue liner, sticks like is brilliant for cracks so is a magical substance like mili putt (2 chemicals) that you mix . I have only used the stuff for concrete but you can get it for copper and plastics, it dries SOLID in 15-20 mins and thats not plyable solid thats fixed for life.

[Jivemaster]

Dom estic swimming pool liner is in shades of blue and aqua (greenish) and is usually a soft compound PVC.

 

If you can find your local pool supplier thay may have an old liner you could cut up to suit your purposes. The correct glue is sold as Boxer100 and sets BETTER underwater.