Fibreglass lining advice

[wayne c]

Hi everyone my names Wayne i'm new to the forum. I have a pond which was finished with a paint on liner, it kept leaking. I decided to fibreglass it as a permanent solution I purchased all of the materials before the lockdown, I planned to get someone familiar with fibreglass to do the job for me. However right now I have a lot of free time so I was going to give it a go myself, can anyone give me any advice on mixing the resin's etc. I have all of the gear but ive never used fibreglass before. I appreciate your help thankyou Wayne. I'll have a go at putting a picture of the pond on.

 

[sissy]

have you checked out you tube ,I would have no clue on that at all .Maybe someone else does on here

 

[Stephen Noble]

I have fiberglass experience but only with surfboards and repairing cars and reinforcing large planters etc. No fiberglass ponds. Yes, check out on line videos and if you still have questions feel free to ask. What brand of fiberglass cloth, resin & hardener do you have? What is your pond constructed of?

 

[j.w]

@wayne c
Sorry I know nothing about doing the fiberglass but it looks like it will be a very nice pond for you.

 

[addy1]

Welcome to our forum!
I know nothing about fiberglass either but there are those on this that might know.

 

[GBBUDD]

Nicely done id go to you tube and watch as many as you can until you can point out who knows what they are talking about and who doesn't then you are ready to sniff the glue. depending on the make and your day a respirator is recommended. good luck finding one of those.

 

[poconojoe]

I would have suggested one of those paint on liners, but you said it had that and it leaked. It just looks like cement in the picture.

I have, as others, done auto repair and other various small repairs with fiberglass. The resin sets up pretty fast, within minutes. You have to be quick. It's sticky and messy and you need the right tools and equipment. There are various different cloth thicknesses, weaves, strands, etc. and different resins too.

If you're planning on coating that entire pond,
I think that would be a huge undertaking for someone that has never worked with that stuff before. But if you're just patching some cracks, maybe not so bad. I don't think fiberglass will adhere too well to that cement that's there. Any small patches will probably just fall off in a short period of time.

I'm on a boat forum where people do massive repairs with fiberglass. These guys know their stuff. If you want to check it out, look around on this forum:

Boating Forum - iboats Boating Forums

Discussion of boats, general boating questions and anything else directly related to a boat or an engine.

forums.iboats.com

Whenever you get to it, be sure to take lots of in-progress pictures and post up a few for us. Your experience might be of great help for someone in a similar situation. We all learn from each other.

Good luck...

 

[wayne c]

Thanks guys, yeah its all been painted with I think it was called G4 but it keeps cracking so I was going to do a complete fibreglass lining. Yeah I checked on youtube and it shows you how to do the job, but what I really need is the correct measurements for mixing the resin and hardener. I know its quite a big job but i'm sure it will be good if its done correctly.

 

[poconojoe]

You must have bought an awful lot of fiberglass cloth, resin and hardener. That's a huge area to cover. I hope you have eye protection and a respirator. I have an asbestos rated respirator I use for jobs like that. That fiberglass dust is not good. Cover all your skin too or you'll be itching big time.

The materials you bought don't have instructions on the ratio of hardener to resin? Can you contact the manufacturer for instructions? There are various resins out there, so you need specific instructions on the materials you have.

With that large an area, you will need measuring containers, mixing containers disposable gloves and plenty of them. It gets frustrating when the fingers of your gloves start sticking together as the mixture starts to cure. The leftover mixture will harden, so that container may have to be discarded. Once you mix it, you have little time to get it spread out, so you don't want to mix too much at a time. You'll see as you go along.

 

[JamieB]

Definitely update. This is something we've considered for my pond, but we would be doing a very large area, and have 4 people to do it. My thought is that having a helper to roll on the resin, and one to place the cloth/ fiber, and one to mind the resin and roll on the follow up coat would be a good thing.

 

[Bradw]

this was just the thread I was looking for!
I'm wanting to do the same.
Have you made a start? How did it go??
My question is is it ok to fibreglass straight over pond paint

 

[GBBUDD]

like poconojoe said theres set mixing and recommended surface prep talk to your manufacturer i would use a scarifier to rough up the surface removing the sealer/ paint the acid wash before the fiberglass but thats my gut feeling