Frost heaves moving my ledge and causing a leak!

[Allynn Wilkinson]

Hi everyone,
I live on the Connecticut coast and, boy, has it been cold here! I have a 10 year old cement pond (sealed with Liquid Rubber and PermaFlex). Every winter when it gets below 5 degrees or so I have a leaking problem. Not a big deal; it usually only lasts a couple of days, but this year - WOW! I went out Wednesday (before the blizzard) and only the very deepest 8 inches or so were liquid! Everything else was either gone, or frozen solid. The outside tap was frozen, of course, so I had to run a garden hose out my bathroom window to top the water back up. I've been monitoring it very closely since then and it seems to lose the first 6 inches in just a couple of hours. After that it slowly leaks (until I panic and top it up again!).

My soil is dense clay and I'm fairly sure there is an unsealed spot between the small, middle rock on the waterfall side that I can't reach. Since I have no leaking problem when the weather is non-arctic I can only assume that the frost heaves that stone up just enough to cause the problem. So what can I do about it? Anything? I'll be grateful for any and all suggestions.

The bottom of the pond is a single slab of granite so the depth goes from nothing (on the left by the rock) to 30" or so (on the right by the chairs).

The pond in warmer times - this past summer:

Thanks,
Allynn

 

[MitchM]

Welcome Allynn!

Sorry for your pond troubles.
I would not add any water until the weather warms up and you can identify and fix the leak. Any water you add now will only get behind your pond concrete and make matters worse if it freezes again.
Is there enough water for the fish to survive? If not, I would try and catch them and bring them inside.

When do you expect the weather to warm up again?

 

[BarbO]

Welcome Allyn! Sorry for the trouble, as Mitch said too. If this was my pond, I would try to get the pond and fish through the winter somehow. But then in Spring I would drain it and put a good EPDM liner into the concrete lined hole. And a good strong underlayment between the concrete and rubber liner. That way you will not ever have this problem again in winter. I love those rocks you have there. Pretty pond, well worth the work and expense to redo it. Good luck!

 

[Lisak1]

What a pretty pond! Welcome to the GPF!

I think you've gotten some good advice already - right now it's probably a wait and see situation.

 

[qclabrat]

Welcome, is that them lovely Stonington rocks? I go to Groton a few times a year and love seeing the use of the local rocks.

Agree with everyone else, bring your fish in and look to repair when it warms up