Help patching a torn liner

[SheWanders]

Hi all! We build a shallow pond with an urn fountain 6 years ago. Unfortunately, a raccoon tore a hole (jagged, maybe 8"x6") in the liner. I tried patching it with a pond patch kit, but it didn't adhere well and fell off a few weeks later. The hole is up on the side of the basin, so I have made do by keeping the water level low. Now, we find ourselves in the position of buying a new house (with two huge amazing ponds!), and we will be renting out our current home. I want to convert the pond to a pondless fountain, so it is safe and low-maintenance for renters. I plan to remove the river rock in the bottom, add some AquaBlox, and then cover with the stone. I need to be able to fill it up to full capacity, so I need a final solution for patching this liner.

One problem: I can't get behind the liner as it is mortared in between the coping blocks. The ground behind the liner is rough and uneven which makes it pretty much impossible to use a roller to get good adhesion.

Any ideas or advice? Attaching some pics.

 

[addy1]

Welcome to our forum!

I just patched a fussy pipe leak in my pond. I used Goop marine goop, it is made for under water work. Clean, dry, apply. I would put a good layer on the original liner, then use a small piece of liner that you push onto the pond liner, also put goop on all of the edges of the liner patch.

Let it dry well and you should be fine. The stuff is messy, sticky in a tube. Wear gloves.

Amazon.com

 

[Mmathis]

Hello and welcome!

Either what @addy1 said, or lay a new liner over the old one. Cut slits in the old liner first. Do you know what your liner is made of? PVC or rubber?

And CONGRATULATIONS on the new house with 2(!) ponds! How awesome is that! We moved about 18 months ago, but our real estate agent STRONGLY suggested that we fill in our pond at the old house. It was an obvious DIY build, so, well you get the idea. We are waiting to build at our new home, but with Coronavirus, we, like everyone else, are having to watch our budget very closely for the time being.

 

[j.w]

and welcome @SheWanders
Nice looking water feature. So neat you found a place w/2 ponds already built for you or maybe they are natural ones? Both idea's above are good ones.

 

[SheWanders]

Thanks for the ideas! It is an EPDM liner and I kept the leftover scraps. I will use a piece of that with that Goop marine adhesive.

We are super excited about our new place! Another member of my garden club spent 10 years taking the property from 1.6 acres of pasture to a massive garden with 2 large ponds connected by a stream. She needed to downsize, so we snapped it up.

The ponds are manmade. I definitely want to make some changes - add bog filtration and change some of the rockwork and plantings to make it a little more naturalistic. But it is amazing as is and we are really enjoying it! We are running a dragonfly breeding program (lol), and there are tons of birds, frogs, salamanders... just wonderful. I'm sure I will be tapping this community's collective brain when we do the bog - hopefully, this fall!

 

[addy1]

I will use a piece of that with that Goop marine adhesive.

I would take some sandpaper, rough up the epdm, clean it well with acetone or alcohol. Cut the cover piece of liner big enough to cover the hole plus, clean it also rough it up also. Apply the goop all around the hole, apply the goop to the cover piece of liner, let them sit for about 2 minutes (gets tacky) then press together, press hard on the cover piece of liner. Then I would let it dry for a day or so, then I would make sure all of the edges of the cover piece of liner is sealed down with the goop. I would let it dry for a few days. Saying more days since you are sealing two moisture proof things together, this way some air gets to the stuff around the hole before you seal the edges.

I let mine dry for around 2, I had put a new pipe hole through my 300 gallon stock tank, used my normal pl roofing goop darn thing kept leaking, so I pulled that stuff and took my sealant I bought for the boat, gooped the poop out of it. It hardens up hard.

I still use the pl roofing goop but for some reason the pipe would not seal this time, probably due to we sort of hit a bump in the tank.

Love your new house ponds! That is beautiful!

 

[poconojoe]

Sounds like great advice from addy, as usual.

I wonder...
EPDM seems to be basically rubber and probably the same material as a tire inner tube. So, I wonder if you can patch it using the same method and materials as an inner tube? If a patch like this can hold air, and under great pressures, then it should be able to hold water that has little, if any, pressure.

 

[j.w]

You are getting a beautiful piece of property there and wonderful looking ponds @SheWanders

 

[GBBUDD]

Thanks for the ideas! It is an EPDM liner and I kept the leftover scraps. I will use a piece of that with that Goop marine adhesive.

We are super excited about our new place! Another member of my garden club spent 10 years taking the property from 1.6 acres of pasture to a massive garden with 2 large ponds connected by a stream. She needed to downsize, so we snapped it up.

The ponds are manmade. I definitely want to make some changes - add bog filtration and change some of the rockwork and plantings to make it a little more naturalistic. But it is amazing as is and we are really enjoying it! We are running a dragonfly breeding program (lol), and there are tons of birds, frogs, salamanders... just wonderful. I'm sure I will be tapping this community's collective brain when we do the bog - hopefully, this fall!

View attachment 132164

Looks like addy's family lives there or addys old place

 

[addy1]

Looks like addy's family lives there or addys old place

I wish, mine has never been sooooooooooooooooo neat and organized!