Sealer for EPDM liner seams

[Timo42]

My wife informed me that we were building a koi pond and that she had purchased 3 10'x10' sheets of EPDM, seam sealer tape, and primer. The hole ended up 8'x8'x4' roughly square, with fairly steep sides, I folded one liner into the bottom, seamed the corners without cutting the sheet(if all else fails we would end up with 2' of water), and cut the remaining sheets into 4' wide strips and seamed them into each side to form the sides and lip of the pond, multiple overlaps on the corners, lots of seam tape. The pond leaks at several spots, this is the second time I have drained it to patch. :twocents: Realizing that I am probably doomed to unmitigated failure, is there any sealer that can be applied over the leaks, Henry's wetpatch or something like it, or should I A:keep patching the seams with the tape, or B:give up on this mess and just buy a 20x20 sheet like she should have in the first place. The guy on ebay she bought it from told her it would be no problem to do it this way:grumble: Trying to do it right, have a 2"drain in the bottom, 1/8 hp external pump, 55gal drum biofilter, extra drum if necessary, but I am losing about 5" of water overnight.
Thanks, Tim

 

[David]

I would say go with a 20 by 20 liner.
When you seam a liner together it should be done on a flat surface and not in the hole that you have for the pond.

With all the wrinkles in the liner it may be very hard to stop all the leaks.

 

[David]

Also
I would like to welcome you to this forum.

You will have lots of questions and there are many people on this forum that can help.

 

[DrDave]

Go to Home Depot and get several tubes of urethane. It bonds to everything and is used to keep windows in high rise sky scapers. It won't fail and should fix your problem. The surface has to be clean and dry before you apply it.

 

[Timo42]

Thanks for the advise and welcome, hadn't thought of urethane, hit up a glass installer that stopped by the shop, he gave me 2 tubes of the industrial grade stuff,:banana: if that doesn't work it is not to be, and I will have to pony up for a new liner:grumble:

 

[DrDave]

Let us know how that works out for you and if you can, post some photos of the repair & process so others can see how it is done.

 

[Timo42]

Update, patched visible holes, sealed suspect areas with urethane, let sit 2 days before filling water level dropped about 1" in first coupe of hours, maybe ground settling, maybe leak. Dumb dog fell in pond just after dark; I thought Great Pyrenees were supposed to be smart; no visible damage, but with my luck:icon_rolleyes: Guess I will find out in the morning, probably going to order new liner in evening.:yellowbounce:
Tim

 

[koiguy1969]

leave your old liner down and just go over it. the added protection wont hurt. clean it and dry it first. if the wholes are on the bottom maybe put a tarp or carpet pad,or even a 1/2" layer of wet newspaper down too.

 

[Timo42]

Just an update, finished installing the new liner just now, pulled the old one out since I had some settling behind it where the leaks were, and it didn't fit at the top anymore where I cut a step in the dirt. Sand and silt so no worries about puncture from outside. Going to wait a couple of hours for the urethane sealer to setup around the drain fitting before I add water. It will be nice to get this part behind me. Tim

 

[DrCase]

One piece is better than two.....Welcome to the forum

 

[Timo42]

OK pond holds water, let pump run overnight, added dechlorinator and the bacteria stuff, and to my surprise when I got home from work tonight, I found that my wife had transferred the fish to the pond this afternoon. I know you are supposed to wait a week, so now what? They seem happy so far. Tim

 

[DrDave]

Watch the nitrite/nitrate levels for the next 2 weeks.