CKP Projects Monica

est. 1995

projects: monica

Monica's pond was the prototypical landscapers pond. Aesthetically pleasing but technically lacking

After careful evaluation a few things were decided upon and we began

First, we would get rid of the majority of the rock in the pond, in particular the smaller pieces which are prone to collecting debris

Second, we would install a bottom drain and external filter

Third, we would discover a lot of ground water and needed to install a french drain (see pic below right)

A rare photo of me in action,
I'm usually behind the
camera

Left
We also decided to leave the waterfall as is. We would cut the liner out around it and then bond the new liner to it. That would be less work than moving all the heavy stone out but making a watertight bond of 15 feet in length with folded and rolling liner would not be easy. Step 1 was to gut the pond of all the rock and muck. We also dug the pond about 1 foot deeper and installed a 4 inch bottom drain

Right
This pond represented a unique challenge as we discovered we had a high water table. You can see the water underneath the liner. To alleviate any "whaling" of the liner we ran flex hose and gravel wrapped in some geosynthetic to a sump chamber. Here the sump pump would turn on automatically and drain the accumulated water into the yard

We chose a Nitritech 2500 cloverleaf to filter this pond. It is nice and compact and will handle a pond of this size nicely. Once again we were in fairly tight quarters and trying to get everything done was not easy. You can see my dog Sable was not impressed with the line folds. Of course this is before we taped them up

The large seam was a challenge and it took 2-3 visits to get it watertight. It was difficult dealing with the folds and rolls in the liner. In the end it was the better way to go as ripping up the waterfall would have represented more work

Here we see the Nitritech 2500 in the ground and operational. The white tube is 6 inch in diameter and is the access point to the gate valve which shuts off water to the filter system. The wooden cover is over the flushing/sump chamber which the filters flush into as well as sump from the pond. It is almost 6 feet deep because it had to be deeper than the pond to get the water behind the liner to flow to it

After everything was running the pond looked good. It is home to 3 koi which we Winter at the warehouse. The pond also has a skimmer and there is good water movement. This job took just over 100 hours to complete and I'm happy with the results

Last Modified : September 28, 2008