What to use to make a "stream?"

[briandye]

Hello everyone, love the forum so far. New guy, just bought our first house, and have always loved the backyard pond/waterfalls, so this was a must.

Been going at it for about a week now, bought a 145 gal preformed pond, and one of the preformed cascade waterfalls.

The area is sectioned in the corner of our yard by a gray retaining wall, with black mulch and some plants and maybe a few solar lights.

We were gonna just "dump" the waterfall into the pond, as you normally at all, but decided to do the waterfall sideways behind the pond, and have a stream going from the bottom of the waterfall into the pond.

I'm at a loss right now on what to make the stream with. Pond won't have any fish, but possibly a few small plants.

I was thinking a large 7-8" diameter PVC pipe cut in half longways, but I unfortunately have no way to cut it, and don't know anybody who could.

I can take/upload a few pictures tomorrow morning to help make more sense.

I thought maybe some kind of rubber liner and form the stream in the soil/mulch, but I can't find any kind of rubber lining that I think would work.

Any suggestions on what I could use? Really excited to get this finished over my long weekend. (Usually work 6-7 long days a week).

Thanks in advance!

 

[CometKeith]

Hey briandye. Good luck with your pond and welcome to gpf. You can probably cut the pvc with a hacksaw. I see plumbers cutting them all the time with them. I started with one of those small kit type ponds a few years back. Once you catch the bug you never want to stop growing and improving your pond! You aren't tempted to throw in even one goldfish when you are done? They are more fun to watch then plants!

 

[RobAmy]

Welcome, the rubber liner will be more forgiving in the shape you may want. I do not know where you live but Lowes and Home depot have small liner kits. A small piece of rubber roofing would work also. The PVC cuts very easy but do not know if you have any tools?

Not sure if something like a splash block would work for you. http://www.homedepot.com/p/Amerimax...n-Splash-Block-3002-12/100090348?N=5yc1vZardx

 

[addy1]

You could even get a heavy duty tarp from home depot, lowes to use as your stream bed, double it up for thickness. Not as tough as pond liner but cheap and would work and last for a while.

 

[Lisak1]

Why not just use pond liner? Out of curiosity...

 

[sissy]

Welcome and you could also use pvc liner to save money .But wondering is it limited space that made you go with preformed .The preformed is not cheap and liner would have been lots cheaper and easier to put in .A 10x12 liner maybe 50 to 60 dollars on the high end and you could have gotten a little bigger piece for your stream .

 

[briandye]

Thanks for all the suggestions,

1. Its looking like I might have to invest in some tools to cut the pipe and go that route, its just gonna have alot of turns, so I really didnt want to have to cut by hand. I am sure we will be throwing some fish and plants in eventually, were always changing our minds lol

2. I cant find the rubber liner anywhere! Lowes/Menards only have large pond liners that are $60+ and I'm talking like 6-8' and 6-7" wide, so I wouldn't even need a fraction of that. I don't have tools to cut the PVC otherwise we'd go that route. Can you send a link to some of this rubber roofing you're talking about? That splash block is a great idea, however I don't care for how those look, and were gonna need something a lot longer, and something to turn/make angles, the stream isnt falling straight from the waterfall to the pond.

3. The tarp is a good idea, however I just don't think that would be very aesthetically pleasing.

4. The only liners I've found are HUGE (600+ gallon) and have a hefty price tag. We only need something that totals about 6'8 feet and about 7" wide, so that's a lot of liner to waste.

5. Neither of us really care for the look of the liner, (Plus we would have to buy the rocks to surround the pond/hold the liner right away, (Were still getting piece by piece so to speak, rocks are last on our list) and we aren't working with a ton of room. Our 180(+/-?) gallon pond was only $60, which is cheaper than the big liners I have saw, and we decided on a 3-brick high retaining wall, so only part of the pond had to be dug into the ground.

Does anyone know if I can just buy a roll of rubber lining somewhat close to the size im looking for? Something 10" or so, ive found some stuff online, but like I said, this is my only long weekend off work, so id really like to finish this pond tomorrow and start enjoying it

 

[Doghouserez]

I have cut PVC legnthwise thru a table saw. Just do one side at a time.

 

[Lisak1]

I would try craigslist for liner - we have a pile of scraps that we would love to get rid of, so I would guess there are others out there as well. Of course if liner isn't your thing that's a different story.

 

[sissy]

Do you have a builders discount center near you .You could also check out ebay ,amazon or even craiglist .