I had posted earlier about having a heron visiting my pond. I had the fishing wire “fence”… But needing a way to gate through the fence on the bridge was a pain. And getting a 9 year old to not forget to put the fishing line gate back each time wasn’t working. So I finished up the netting project this weekend. It’s worked out great. The whole basic layout matches what I did years back when that 9 year old was just walking…and we didn’t want him swimming… but that was made from 2x4 and wire fencing. Not pretty but he could have walked across the pond if he wanted to.
So on this updated version… the frame is made from black anodized aluminum tubing with the plastic corner joints. There are several companies that sell this stuff for misc display/manufacturing needs. You can just give them your cut lengths and get it all ready to go for the most part. Being aluminum … the whole thing is actually very light. So the larger section to the left of the bridge is probably less then 10 lbs. I have the short little legs on the outside and then stainless L brackets on the deck side. So the both sections can just drop down into place.
If I need to net the water, I can just lift the smaller section (right of the bridge) out of the way completely …and then for the larger section (left of the bridge) you can see the stainless hinges running between sides… that lets me lift the right portion up like a trap door to get to the water. I initially didn’t have that cross beam splitting it… but once you get the netting on … and pull if nice and taught… it starts to pull the frame out of square quite a bit. If you made it from welded steel… you wouldn’t have this issue.
The netting is 1x1 square netting that is using for sporting needs and should hold up to the sun. The last photo shows how I attached it. I used a billion self taping stainless screws. Half way through I realized that I should have bought small flat aluminum bar or something to thread the netting though, pull it taught, and then just have to screw that bar down in a few spots onto my frame. But… that’s in hindsight.
Overall it looks good and the net only flexes about an inch or so in the middle when I put 5 lbs on it. So that should keep the dang herons at bay! I know most people have more natural looking ponds…. But maybe someone can get an idea from this.
So on this updated version… the frame is made from black anodized aluminum tubing with the plastic corner joints. There are several companies that sell this stuff for misc display/manufacturing needs. You can just give them your cut lengths and get it all ready to go for the most part. Being aluminum … the whole thing is actually very light. So the larger section to the left of the bridge is probably less then 10 lbs. I have the short little legs on the outside and then stainless L brackets on the deck side. So the both sections can just drop down into place.
If I need to net the water, I can just lift the smaller section (right of the bridge) out of the way completely …and then for the larger section (left of the bridge) you can see the stainless hinges running between sides… that lets me lift the right portion up like a trap door to get to the water. I initially didn’t have that cross beam splitting it… but once you get the netting on … and pull if nice and taught… it starts to pull the frame out of square quite a bit. If you made it from welded steel… you wouldn’t have this issue.
The netting is 1x1 square netting that is using for sporting needs and should hold up to the sun. The last photo shows how I attached it. I used a billion self taping stainless screws. Half way through I realized that I should have bought small flat aluminum bar or something to thread the netting though, pull it taught, and then just have to screw that bar down in a few spots onto my frame. But… that’s in hindsight.
Overall it looks good and the net only flexes about an inch or so in the middle when I put 5 lbs on it. So that should keep the dang herons at bay! I know most people have more natural looking ponds…. But maybe someone can get an idea from this.
