Alternative to block built pond

[Jon W]

Hi everyone

I'm currently in the early stages of designing a new pond. I'm looking at something between 8-10K gallons. I am considering the use of poured concrete and steel reinforcement for the walls instead of blocks. The reason for this is that I suspect I'm in for a long dig - I might not be able to get a digger onto the site (it's indoors) and the substrate is red shale which; pretty hard to hack through. Therefore to recoup some time I would like to use poured walls rather than spend months laying blocks. Having said that, if it looks like this might be a compromise on build quality then I won't do it. I think this sort of thing is more popular in the U.S. although they often use Gunnite (sprayed concrete).

The factors that I can think of that might affect the decision are;

1. Being shale, the substrate is very stable.
2. The pond will be a maximum of 2ft out of the ground.
3. It will be a farily regular shape; either rectangular or kidney shaped
4. Final build strength - will be as strong as a block built effort?

Any thoughts welcome.

Regards

Jon

[Myles]

HI,,
The Gunite ponds in America are pretty good, as for poured concrete. Yes it will be fine so long as its done properly.

Remember that the cost of all the shuttering and support beams for the shuttering will be as much as the blocks themselves.

Make sure you use a vibrating rod when you pour the concrete so you dont get any air pockets.

[Jon W]

Hi Myles

Thanks for that. The big if is in the sentence if it's done properly! I'm not so much worried by the cost (within reason of course!). It's more that I could be in for a long dig, so if I can find a way of speeding up the rest of the build, rather than me plodding away doing blocks for the best part of a year then I think it's work considering.

Regards

Jon

[steveW]

If you have already dug the hole, either manualy or with a digger then go with blocks
it doesnt take that much longer to do, but it will be a lot more forgiving than trying to pour concrete
just pour a concrete base then block up, the blocks dont have to be layed expertly as long as you keep the shape and level

3. It will be a farily regular shape; either rectangular or kidney shaped

since when has kidney shaped been regular an awful lot of formwork/shuttering

dont forget you will still need to fibreglass or G4 it, whether concrete or block. (fibreglass being the reccomended)

[Bob Hart]

Jon,

Just use 4" wide blocks, lay then 2-4" from the hole walls, then backfill with concrete. In this way you get the blocks up quicker and cheaper and the concrete backfill ties the blocks into the hole walls and makes everything very strong. As others have said, it doesnt take too long to lay blocks anyway, they are large and easy to deal with. 16-years later mine is still going stong, built this way and I'm no bricklayer.

[Jon W]

Hi Everyone

Thanks for all the comments. I thought that using reinforced concrete would be a lot quicker than using blocks. i.e. once the formwork and reinforcement is in position, it's just a question of pouring in the concrete and waiting for it to cure. I'm quite confident doing the blocks, although I'm not the fastest. It took me an age to build this;

[img]http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc72/dsp ... CT0761.jpg[/img]

and it's about a quarter the size of what I have in mind. Having had one bad experience with a concrete base which had to be dug up and re-done, perhaps building the entire structure out of it could be too risky. Okay, it looks like it's back to the bleedin' blocks after all.

Hi Steve
It was going to be one of those regular kidney shaped ponds! Probably got over excited at the prospect of finally being at a stage to make a start on the design of a new pond. I will use fibreglass but I'm going to get a pro to do it.


Regards

Jon

[Louie]

Hi,
With the current economic cliamate you might find it cheap to get in a short of work brickie perhaps? I paid one £150 for a days work to get my facing brickwork done and couldn't believe the speed he worked. I had been paying someone £100 a day to lay the blocks and it took them 3 days. This "proper" brickie would have done the lot in a day. Always worth shopping around and getting a few quotes I would think.
Good Luck.
Louie

[Jon W]

Hi Louie

Sounds like a good idea - the amount of time it will take me to lay the blocks it would be worth paying someone do the job in a third or less of the time. The only problem is that the real world economy doesn't seem to operate in West Wales. I don't have the contacts I had in London and everything here seems to cost more and doesn't necessarily result in a decent job. One of my mates employed a "reputable" firm to block his pond; he got rid of them within the first day after it looked like the pond was going to resemble a ski jump. I have got a couple of mates who will help me out so hopefully that will speed things up a bit. The other option might be if the building trade continues to go downhill I might be able to persuade someone from London to come down for a paid holiday and do some work.

Cheers

Jon