Pond Liners

Liner in an above ground pond

The most important part of your pond is the thing that holds the water in--the liner. The sun is its worst enemy. It will destroy a liner faster than any other natural enemy. Cover every piece of your liner with finishing material, whether it is rocks, bricks or other material. While I am on the subject, use liners made for pond use. Buy your liner from a store specializing in Aquatic Garden supplies.


Be sure it is at least 40 mils thick and is butyl rubber.  They are heavy and can be difficult to move, but they have at least a 20 year warranty and that's important.  


BTW, do not put rocks on the bottom of your pond. They do nothing at all and in a week or so, you can't see them. When it comes time to clean out your pond, you have to remove hundreds or thousands of rocks.  And then find a place to put them because you certainly don't want them back in your pond.


For lots more pond information, visit us at pondlady.com 
We have experts in all things pond who visit there and will answer your questions.  Show us photos of your pond so we can ooh and aah.


My pond book is still on the best seller list.  Buy it by clicking on the graphic in the top right of this page.  It is on sale now, but the price is going up in the next few days.  Act now.

Pond liners and tree roots

Question:
Have your pond liners been poked by tree roots?
I've got a EPDM liner, and I'm not going to use underlayment.
There are an avocado tree, an apple tree, an orange and a willow. They are about 4 feet away from the border of my pond. The pond is just 15 in below the ground.
I wonder if the tree roots can poke the liner? or it will just run around the liner?

Answer:
Your liner will be fine with those trees. Bamboo and banana trees poke through liners, no others. But it is safer to use an underlayment. Use 15# roofing felt. It's cheap and easy.

Letters, we get letters

Dear Pondlady,
I want to use heavy duty visqueen for my pond. It's cheap and I don't see why it wouldn't work.
I also need to know how many gallons I have so I know what pump to buy.

Pondlady sez: 

Use 45 mil butyl rubber liner. It is fish friendly and will last longer than 6
mil plastic. The visqueen will tear while you are putting the pond together. The rubber liner comes with a 10 year guarantee at the very least, usually 20.
Gallons of water are figured like this: length x width x depth x 7.5 gallons per
 cubic foot. The proper pump moves half the water every hour, so knowing how many gallons you have leads you to the right pump. Larger pumps than necessary are great because they push more water over the waterfall.