Bonding rock to liner

[gliebig]

What would be the best product to use to bond rock to liner around the coping edge of a pond?
The black waterfall foam stuff?

 

[lillysbaba]

We used mortar. it adheres a little so is good if you need to move stones at a later date. It also helps to level and stabilize the stones.
Have tried using the foam stuff but once you apply it, it keeps growing so you never know if you have applied too much or too little until it is too late to do anything about it. I used some around the waterfall and it looks like some sort of alien growth.

 

[morewater]

What would be the best product to use to bond rock to liner around the coping edge of a pond?
The black waterfall foam stuff?

Why do you want to "adhere" stones to the liner. To what purpose. Explain and you just may find that there are ways around this common mistake.

 

[gliebig]

So they don't fall in. The plan is to do the whole coping edge with the flat rock.

 

[Lisak1]

The problem is if you bond the rock to the liner and a rock gets knocked in it will pull the liner in with it. I wouldn't recommend it personally.

 

[gliebig]

Yeah. The flat racks are going to overhang a bit and LED's will be placed under them along with some hanging planter pockets. You can see the lining overhang. That will also have rocks secured to it to help hold it in place and hide the liner.

 

[morewater]

You'd be better off building a shallow shelf around the perimeter and then placing your flat rocks on the shallow shelf in order that the flat rocks will be partly submerged, leading to a more natural edge. Properly placed, the rocks will not have to be "secured", but will rest on their own weight. If you're talking about a flagstone edge, then you may need to stack them.

Bring the liner up behind the placed stones and "secure" it in place with a gravel edge to keep the liner upright behind the placed stones.

Pond edges are the most overlooked aspect of any pond design, in that a poorly constructed edge looks unnatural, is unstable and shows liner.

 

[gliebig]

I agree with what you're saying. That's something we'll definitely have to work on. I liked the way the original one was level with the patio now we have that ~6" drop to work around.

 

[addy1]

If it was mine, I would pull the liner up from the outside of the wall (just moving it out of the way). Then stack flat rocks up to the edge of the pond, even with the top of the pond. Then take the extra liner, lay it out on rocks, place a large flat rock on the liner, balanced over the pond edge but it will be secure since the majority of the flat rock will be on the stacked outside rocks. The edge of the liner pull up over the outside edge of that rock, then stack one more rock on the outside of the liner. Now you have a rock that will be partly under water, with the liner hidden under the rock. The edge of the liner covered by the outside rocks.

I will draw up something simple to show you what I mean.

 

[addy1]

lousy drawing but might show you what I mean
gray rocks up to level of pond edge, red rock on top of pond edge slightly over the water, black line liner, green rock on top of red rock, covering the turned up liner and over the gray rocks. The green rock will anchor the red rock from falling into the water.

The water will be partly up on the red rock, makes it look like a natural edge.

 

[gliebig]

I see. I don't have a ledge like that, though. Mine drops straight down. I'm so far past my original budget that I can't do a big rework like that. The whole thing was pretty hard to level all the way around because my ground slopes pretty severely away from the house. The far side of the pond is actually about 3.5 above the ground. I don't have a pic of that.

 

[addy1]

Looking at the pictures it appeared it would work. The other option, build up a dirt berm.

My whole system is on a severe slope, the down side edge of my pond and bog is 8-10 feet above "normal" ground level. The top edge of the pond I had to dig down 4 feet to make it level with the 8-10 foot dirt berm.
I used dirt to build up the edges then layered rocks and plants on them. Blends right in.

 

[tbendl]

gliebig, I made pockets for rocks out of window screen since I don't have a ledge either. It works great because the screen just tucks into the flat rock I have edging the pond. Let me know if you are interested and I will find some pictures of my pockets.

 

[gliebig]

I'd like to see pics if it's not too much trouble for you to find them.

Thanks

 

[tbendl]

No not at all. Sissy actually is the one who showed me these pockets sewn from fishing line and screen. I made them to hold both flowers and rocks to cover the gap between my flat pavers and the water line. Super easy to make. There is a before and after shot with the rocks and a few shown with plants.
I hope this helps.