Is it possible to 'raise' a pond?

[James_Pond]

I put a pond in, 2 years ago. It's ok, but in hindsight I wish I had made the top about 8-10 inches higher than it is as it's slightly lower than the adjacent lawn.

It's got a liner and I have of course cut this to fit. Is it possible to somehow attach more liner to this to make the edge/ top of the pond higher than now or is that a complete rebuild?

 

[brokensword]

you could always drain it, remove the liner, fill in the hole a bit, replace the liner, berm the bank a bit, add more water, voila! Higher pond!

 

[Lisak1]

I think @brokensword hit on the only possible solution. Adding liner would be difficult and prone to problems - like the dreaded L word. And I don't know about you, but I would be continuously convinced that any water loss was a leak around my add-on liner!

And hindsight being 20-20, I'm sure you now recognize why the admonition is to always leave as much extra liner around the edge as humanly possible.

 

[sissy]

Sorry to hear this and hope you can resolve it .I did a partial raised with concrete block ,no cement just filled them with my clay soil and rebar

 

[James_Pond]

I had tons of extra liner .I changed it last year and cut it to make it neater. Hey ho.

I might just excavate the lawn when the wife's away. She won't notice .

 

[brokensword]

I had tons of extra liner .I changed it last year and cut it to make it neater. Hey ho.

I might just excavate the lawn when the wife's away. She won't notice .

especially if there's some jewelry sitting on the kitchen counter...

 

[CountryEscape]

I still have extra liner around the edge of my ponds ... all except for the few edges where I BARELY had enough .. Ugh! I wish I could move that bog wall in, or maybe I should do as suggested above, and drain the bog, remove all that blasted HEAVY rock and fill in below the liner, so I don't have to worry about that one edge of the liner that barely is past the height of the bog water ... and isn't high enough when the plants get in the way. Bleh! l agree with Lisa, though, and would replace the whole thing before adding to the edge and worrying about leaks from the seam.

 

[Lisak1]

We have one troublesome edge, too @CountryEscape - right at the side where the waterfall wall meets the pond. The water wasn't even supposed to go to that side so I wasn't worried about it being a bit short at the time. But once we had the waterfall running we thought "wouldn't it be nice to have the water flowing over to the left JUST A BIT!" so we added a "T" pipe to the main line to create a bit more water flow. It's fine 99% of the time, but an overly ambitious plant or ice forming in just the right spot can cause the water to get too high on that side.

I keep saying I'm going to seam some liner there so I don't have to worry about it but man, I don't look forward to that job! But I know the day will come when I will be looking for a project...

 

[James_Pond]

I keep saying I'm going to seam some liner there so I don't have to worry about it but man, I don't look forward to that job! But I know the day will come when I will be looking for a project...

I assume by 'seam' you basically mean 'sticking' another piece of liner to your existing liner? I did wonder about this. Whether it was feasible to effectively take a 2 foot roll and glue it all the way round the edge to raise it. I'm sure that could create its own problems, but anyone that has a truly massive pond has to stick pieces of liner together anyway.

 

[adavisus]

Build the sides higher, empty the pond, use a cheap liner on top of the old one?

 

[Lisak1]

I assume by 'seam' you basically mean 'sticking' another piece of liner to your existing liner?

Exactly. And yes, in some pond builds it is necessary to seam two pieces of liner to create one that is wide enough. That however would be best done under ideal circumstances - everything dry, everything clean, everything flat. Trying to get a good seam around the entire perimeter of an existing pond would be next to impossible. You have folds all around a pond edge where you could never get the liner flat enough to create a seam that would hold.

The area I'm talking about adding liner to is completely above water, is less than four feet long (really only need about a foot, but I would extend it out on either side) and is just to prevent overflow in rare circumstances. More of a backup for peace of mind than an actual need. I just need to create a bit of a higher edge - not hold water on a regular basis.

 

[CountryEscape]

Exactly. And yes, in some pond builds it is necessary to seam two pieces of liner to create one that is wide enough. That however would be best done under ideal circumstances - everything dry, everything clean, everything flat. Trying to get a good seam around the entire perimeter of an existing pond would be next to impossible. You have folds all around a pond edge where you could never get the liner flat enough to create a seam that would hold.

The area I'm talking about adding liner to is completely above water, is less than four feet long (really only need about a foot, but I would extend it out on either side) and is just to prevent overflow in rare circumstances. More of a backup for peace of mind than an actual need. I just need to create a bit of a higher edge - not hold water on a regular basis.

I'm in the same boat, but my edges are both on bog walls, and even though the edge is usually 4" out of water, it would be difficult to add liner there, but I probably should try it. Or, as you say, waiting until I need a project, and then empty the bog (OMG, what a heavy mess that would be, with all that pea gravel ...) and simply raise the depth I've got plenty of depth, so that would be doable, as both bogs are about 18" deep. Just the time and effort. BUT, one year I had a leak, I knew it was in the koi bog, and after emptying it about 8" and finding no hole, filling it back and and having leaking water again, I unloaded it again, but all the way to the bottom this time, and found slices on the bottom, evidently from a turtle that buried itself in the pea gravel for winter. I patched that area, and I don't think it has leaked ever since ... knock on wood.

 

[James_Pond]

I like the idea of putting a cheap liner on top of this one, ie. double lining it. I think that is the easiest solution.

I don't like the idea of emptying the pond. Mainly because it means killing everything that's currently in it. I might have to get hold of an old bathtub or something and decant. Maybe.

 

[sissy]

But if water gets between the 2 liners it could float the liner on top

 

[CountryEscape]

What Sissy mentioned is something to be very concerned about! Be absolutely sure that no water can seep between the liners. You might want to even seal the liners together at the top to keep this from happening. I had a pump line break, just outside the edge of the pond, and pumped most of the pond water outside of the pond. That water went to the closest, easiest route ... down the outside edge of the liner. Eventually, the water was under the liner, and the liner began to float up! Thank goodness I came home in time to see the problem, and thank goodness the pump was on a crate, so it drained the pond down to 16" and then stopped. Also, thank goodness for two very special ladies on this forum that I called upon asking for help, and they calmed me down and helped me get past what could have been a tragedy. No fish died, and it was middle of January, temps going below freezing that night!
Bottom line, just putting another liner on top is going to help solve your problem, but could cause a much worse problem at some point. Just be careful.