Various Liner Questions

[ZmanArt007]

I am going to begin construction soon and am shopping around for liners and have a few questions.

1. What is the best/strongest/most winter resistant liner material/brand? Any certain brand that you guys recomend?

2. Is spare carpet a good underliner? Does it end up decaying after awhile? Would you need to replace it sometime?

3. Where can you get the best liners for a low cost? Home Depot? Menards? Lowes? Bomgaars? Earl Mayes? Online?

4. When placing a liner, is one foot around the edges good enough to secure it? Does it need to be longer or shorter than that?

Thank you for your wisdom, masters of the pond.:biggrin:

 

[koikeepr]

1. 45 ml Firestone is the most recognized brand.

2. yes, just make sure there are no tacks on it. Most carpet is made from nylon, which is a synthetic fiber, so it does not decay. The backer might, but I have seen more than a few times folks rip up a 10 year old pond and the carpet backer was in tact.

4.I would go to Ebay. There are a number of vendors there at sell 45 mil liner with a 25 year warranty. I just got my liner there and it has a lifetime warranty. Even with shipping it was way cheaper than buying it locally.

4. yes. Just make sure you have an ability to stop run-off from your lawn coming into the pond. Build a proper edge on it. have the liner go up and over a block or brick, for example that is all around the pond. Fertilizer/insecticides from your lawn or your neighbors lawn can kill fish quickly

 

[Otter]

1. What is the best/strongest/most winter resistant liner material/brand? Any certain brand that you guys recomend?

45 mil EPDM is popular here in the states. In the UK, they like butyl. I agree with koikeeper that of all the brands, Firestone has the strongest reputation.

3. Where can you get the best liners for a low cost? Home Depot? Menards? Lowes? Bomgaars? Earl Mayes? Online?

Ebay is worth a look. So are these sites:
http://www.fosterandsmithaquatics.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=9213
http://www.webbsonline.com/catalog/liner/index.html
http://www.justliners.com/pondgardepdm.htm

The problem with ordering liner is the shipping. You may find that local stores are cheaper once you add in the delivery charges.

Many people have used roofing liner instead of pond liner, and while there are questions about whether or not this is safe, I haven't heard of any problems. OTOH, the prices for the two types are usually about the same these days.

4. When placing a liner, is one foot around the edges good enough to secure it? Does it need to be longer or shorter than that?

One foot would be plenty to anchor the liner, but remember that as the liner conforms to the pond, it may pull quite a bit from the edges. Also, the soil under the pond will likely settle a bit in the first few years. Err on the side of too much slack rather than not enough. I'd just fold any extra over rather than cutting it, as you may need it someday. And be sure to leave extra slack where the liner attaches to a skimmer or waterfall. These seals are bound to leak if the pond is hanging from them.

How much extra you need depends on your soil and the shape of your pond, and I don't have the experience to answer that question. But the original owner of my pond did not leave enough, and I can tell you that is a problem you want to avoid at all costs.

 

[koikeepr]

good answers from Otter here!

 

[ZmanArt007]

Alright, thank you! I am gonna shop around more, but it looked at the firestone, any they look promising; I'm just worried about the shipping costs...

 

[jason081180]

check Craigs list for a local guy. i got a 20x30 liner from a guy for $100.

 

[ZmanArt007]

Check what? Craigs list? What exactly is that?

 

[DrDave]

www.craigslist.com
Go there, you will figure it out.

 

[jason081180]

Craigslist.com is a site the you can post things for sale for free. each city has their own page that has what local people what to sell. select your location and do a search for pond. that's how i got mine. they have everything. i got a pond liner, my cell phone, and a couple fish tanks from there. just be sure u have some one local and can meet in a public place. also only deal with cash and in person. there are some scams on there.

 

[digginponds]

home depot and menards sells a 20X15 liner less than 80.00 bucks......no shipping cost....better yet home depot sells the whole darn kit,rocks and all for 800.00........All ya gotta do is start diggin.........

 

[koikeepr]

those liners from home depot/menards are not decent liner. No liner of that size for $80 bucks is going to be decent.

Liner is the most critical aspect of the pond--it holds the darn water. This is not where you want to scrimp.

This is where i got my liner. It's a Firestone competitor brand. When I saw it up close alongside a real firestone, I could not tell the difference. Everything about it was the same. Call the guy, as he was most helpful in helping me size my piece properly. You don't want to guess here. They also sent me a ton of extra. The shipping was perfectly reasonable, and still with shipping was at least 35% cheaper than what I could find here locally.

 

[ZmanArt007]

Ok well I am probably going with a Firestone PondGard 45 mil 20' X 25', price is $220 alone, with shipping(FedEx) it is $292. I think it is reasonable enough. Atleast it wont have to be replaced for awhile.

 

[koikeepr]

That's an extremely good price with shipping for a firestone liner of that size. Jump on that deal!

 

[tremon123]

We used rubber roofing for our pond. You can cut and glue to get more of the shape you want. Available at same place that sells shingles. Our fish have been in the pond for a year and are perfectly healthy. The carpet is a great idea. we used it under our liner in our above ground swimming pool and it has kept it nice and smooth.