The proof of the pond is in the raining
Today was a big day for the shallow pond. I cracked open my tube of Gold Label Pond and Aquarium Sealer, which had been sitting on my bookcase for six months, and squirted it all along the join between the mortar and the liner. I had calculated that the recommended 5mm bead width would leave me with plenty over, but I think I ended up applying it thicker in some places. It is quite tiring squeezing the trigger of the sealant tube gun, and my bead was not always smooth, but that doesn’t matter. I took the following picture standing on the back of the raised pond.
Shallow pond waterproofing overview
And here is a close up view of my waterproofing attempt.
The corner of the shallow pond in front of the pieris
I had enough left to repair the water butts. My last attempt, documented at Water butt repair lasted less than a year. So I removed the old silicone sealant (very easy) and stuck on some patches of pond liner with the rest of my Gold Label. They stuck very easily, and I also applied some sealant around the pipes connecting the water butts to each other and the drain pipe, and I managed to use the whole of the rest of the tube.
Water Butt Repair Attempt 2
Originally I had planned to use the leftover sealant to stick the rainbow cobbles to the liner, but I decided that I would rather find out first whether I had succeeded in getting the pond waterproof, and then buy some more sealant to stick the cobbles to the liner. The manufacturers recommend using their black sealant rather than the colourless for sticking stones to liner because it’s thicker and thus is better at holding the stones in place until the sealant is cured.
The sealant was easy to apply and came off my fingers with just water. Can I believe that such a benign substance can really keep my pond stuck together underwater? Well, we have some heavy rain forecast for Sunday and I hope that I will find out soon.
The repair to my patio (see last entry) seems to be satisfactory. I have tripped over two geraniums and a trowel so far, but have not tripped over my newly laid slab, despite not having re-grouted the area yet. So I will press on with laying my stepping stones and see what happens.