I only finished making my pond in spring after a lot of hard work and something's ripped several holes in the EPDM liner. I'm gutted.
I guess it's a fox or a local cat that's always prowling in my garden.
The pond is still filling up after the summer heatwaves, so the holes are in areas that would usually be submerged.
Advice online says to use self-adhesive patches, so I'll try that and cover them with extra rocks.
This post is mainly to share my pain but I'll happily accept any advice for repairing and protecting the liner.
by ThrowawayTrainTAC
7 Comments
Easily repaired with a patch. You’ll be fine
I had mice do that once. Then a big rat snake took care of that problem. Used Flex Tape to cover the hole. Living near wooded areas is always interesting.
That’s too much damage for a cat (who tend not to be too interested in that much water in one place). Depending on where you live, that damage and location more strongly suggests either raccoon, weasel relative or hoof damage (usually deer). If you are really rural, bears can also do this.
You’ll need to protect that shallow liner more effectively, both from claw and from sun damage.
For patch advice: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLWtsZrPYt8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLWtsZrPYt8) and [https://www.aquagardening.com.au/learn/pond-liner-leak-repair/](https://www.aquagardening.com.au/learn/pond-liner-leak-repair/) .
Just move the edging stones over it 😉
It can be patched just like a bicycle inner tube
Sunlight degrades epdm! Roof grade epdm has uv stabilisers added to it.
Tyhe best way forward is to replace the liner and make your pond differently, for a more natural looking edge make a shelf 6 inches below the intended water level, foe ease make the shelf wider than it needs to be, fill the pond to the shelf level, place your rocks on tge shelf on a second layer of liner or pond geotex, once you’re rocks are in position flop the excess liner over the rocks and hold it in place with earth, fill the pond to the required level.
Now is the time to add a bog garden behind a few rocks by removing the supporting earth back away from the rocks and putting it in the water where the bog garden will be, once you’re happy with the position of the rocks and the soil and before trimming the edge trim the liner, stand back and look over it again with a critical eye, once you’re happy trim the liner to a couple of inches above the water and tuck the excess down to just below the soil.
If you get it right it’ll look like this but a little smaller
https://preview.redd.it/c7tgevo1cn1g1.jpeg?width=2560&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c4b4d6de98da1e1919af22bfa058eb00e5892ab1
The grass edging is turf laid on a net and draped into the edge of the pond and the net is ten under the turf behind the edge turf, it does pull water up though
Bentonite pond liner repairs itself when a fox jumps into the pond and rips it.