Author Topic: Deck pond Construction (Read 6139 times)

minnowman · « **on:** July 24, 2011, 07:12:44 AM »

Mike S. asked about construction details of my ponds.

I already had a small deck behind my house. Ground level at the pond is about 30" below the deck surface. Construction began by setting 4x4 posts 24" deep in concerte. The pond walls are two 2x10s and one 2x8 vertically, then the EPDM liner,then a 2x4 horizontally to shade the liner,then another 2x8 vertically to fill in the wall to 2" above the deck surface.Between the wall and the liner is a layer of 1/2" styrofoam insulation to protect the liner. The floor was covered with sand and sloped to one corner before the liner was installed. All of the wood is pressure treated pine. I'll describe the pond room construction another time

SueSTx · « **Reply #1 on:** July 24, 2011, 08:42:12 AM »

Nice

frogman3 · « **Reply #2 on:** July 24, 2011, 08:56:59 AM »

Yes very nice.

Lynne22 · « **Reply #3 on:** July 24, 2011, 09:00:04 AM »

Ditto all of the above. I'm jealous!!

water_sprite · « **Reply #4 on:** July 24, 2011, 09:04:34 AM »

I love it.

PondmaninAL · « **Reply #5 on:** July 24, 2011, 07:04:10 PM »

I wonder how I could make one that size portable?

CoolShades · « **Reply #6 on:** July 25, 2011, 06:05:39 AM »

Nice work. Did you leave the bracing under the deck? I built a couple of ponds similar to this, it looks like you used 4' on center for the 4x4s. Did you put underwater lights? Also the night bloomers with the serrated edge give it a nice look!

perplexed ponder · « **Reply #7 on:** July 25, 2011, 12:17:15 PM »

Looooooooove it!!!

minnowman · « **Reply #8 on:** July 25, 2011, 03:02:57 PM »

Hi coolshades,

Yes the 4x4s are 0n 4' centers except where I needed to fudge a little where the wall boards spliced,and the outer 4x4s are spaced 4' outside to outside from the inner 4x4s, so the deck boards are not longer than 4'.[no wasted lumber] No underwater lights. They foul up too quick. So far ,one flood light on the 16'x20' pond and one planned for the 20'x20' pond. The night bloomers are slowly getting thinned out as they bloom and get rejected. The rejects are going into my neighbor's one acre mud pond[about 50 so far]. Saturday he had over 40 blooms. It will be quite a show when they all start blooming. Here are a couple of pics.

CoolShades · « **Reply #9 on:** July 26, 2011, 03:58:56 AM »

You have a lucky neighbor. You may want to try optical fiber for lighting, which I found does not really foul like the lights. However, even with lights fouling usually wasn't that bad, i.e. clean them when you are in the pond taking care of plants.

Kat · « **Reply #10 on:** July 26, 2011, 04:50:48 AM »

Wow, beautiful pond & really like all the decking. Are the walls for privacy?

Lucky neighbor.

Mike S. · « **Reply #11 on:** July 26, 2011, 06:59:01 AM »

First off, sorry about not posting in your thread sooner! I've got some on-going computer problems that will get fixed by the end of this week. Also, I work weekends, 3 twelve hour night shifts, so most of my posting takes place during the week days.

Now then, thank you very much for this thread! The text and photo's did a great job explaining how your ponds were built. You clearly have this stuff down tight!

Although it comes at no small personal risk, I'm going to make sure my wife sees these pictures, as well as the one you posted in the "Getting to Know You" section.

When the time comes, I'll be putting up a section on my own web site about building ponds with pressure treated wood, and I'll be getting with you about using some of your pictures (with full credit, of course,) to demonstrate what can be accomplished with this material. It's my material of choice for many reasons.

Very nicely done, I am impressed!

Mike S.
Spring Hill, FL

minnowman · « **Reply #12 on:** July 26, 2011, 07:01:25 PM »

Hi, Kat,

The bamboo fence is mostly to keep retrievers from swimming in the pond, and to act as a windbreak. We'll be moving a few Louisiana Irises into the big pond this Fall. We had problems with them tipping their pots over this Spring. Plus the bamboo was free.It grows in our back yard. The fence won't be complete for a while. There's still a lot more deck to build.

miguynmkoi · « **Reply #13 on:** July 26, 2011, 09:20:37 PM »

The large patch of night bloomers are beautiful! Very interesting to see how a pond is designed. In your case there was just lots more! Thanks for sharing!

perplexed ponder · « **Reply #14 on:** July 28, 2011, 04:19:44 AM »

Are there problems using pressure treated wood around ponds with fish?

I keep thinking that a deck is the best solution around our pond, but was concerned about staining/waterproofing every couple years. My prefrence would be a trex type, but the cost is really prohibitive!

Wish we woould have planned for the deck when we built the pond though. I feel we will run into trouble doing it backwards.

minnowman · « **Reply #15 on:** July 28, 2011, 02:53:10 PM »

Perplexed,

I havent noticed any bad effects on fish,but I don't have any fancy fish,so there wasn't much risk. I havent stained the pond decks yet.Maybe this Fall.

Mike S. · « **Reply #16 on:** July 28, 2011, 03:14:32 PM »

The chemistry used to pressure treat wood has changed over the past few years. It doesn't seem to be quite the threat it once was, nor does it seem to work as well as far as I can tell.

I' still do what I could to avoid any run-off over PT wood into the pond, myself.

Anyone who has had a real problem using PT wood lately should start a thread on the subject. It would be helpful and hopefully, interesting. I wouldn't want to see this thread hi-jacked, though.

Mike S.
Spring Hill, FL

reddad35 · « **Reply #17 on:** July 28, 2011, 05:47:27 PM »

Gary, I love your forethought of the brace sytem. Excellent idea and the final product is fabulous. Thanks for sharing your photos and ideas.

minnowman · « **Reply #18 on:** October 02, 2011, 07:28:15 PM »

I started building the deck pond greenhouse frames today. The end frames are made of pressure treated wood. The middle frames will be made of chain link fence top rail pipe. They will take up less room inside than wooden ones and won't need to be attached to the ridge board [hard to get up there]

Zoe · « **Reply #19 on:** October 03, 2011, 11:09:44 AM »

Please continue to post progress on construction.

Jerry · « **Reply #20 on:** October 03, 2011, 12:13:32 PM »

What Zoe said!
A great job. you are a Craftsman!

minnowman · « **Reply #21 on:** October 15, 2011, 05:14:52 PM »

Made a little bit of progress today. It's going slow because I had to work some o.t. to be able to buy materials. The plastic is on 3 ends. It's held on with wood strips and deck screws. I made a jig to bend the 1" emt pipe for hoops.

miguynmkoi · « **Reply #22 on:** October 15, 2011, 06:26:06 PM »

Brilliant!

I never thought of bending pipe like that! Looking good, can't wait to see the finished greenhouses!

Zoe · « **Reply #23 on:** October 16, 2011, 07:22:46 AM »

I have been waiting for you to post again. Are you doing this for the winter months ahead? Does it help with the water temp? Since we both live in the southern part of the US I am curious.

Cindy

minnowman · « **Reply #24 on:** October 16, 2011, 05:07:24 PM »

Cindy, Waterlilies that are allowed to grow very large are unlikely to produce tubers. Last year the water in my existing greenhouse got down to 53* F when the outside temp was in the twenties. 'Moon beam' ,'Director Moore', and 'Blue spider' grew all winter and bloomed most of that time. This year I'm going to try to heat the water with a solar heater with the hopes of eventually keeping water temp above 70* so I can have flowers and grow babies all year. There's still plenty of work to do and the forecast calls for temps in the 40s later this week. I hope it doesen't get much colder than that any time soon.

Zoe · « **Reply #25 on:** October 17, 2011, 05:08:07 AM »

Thanks for the reply. I can't wait to see the finished project. Yes tomorrow it is supposed to get chilly here also.

minnowman · « **Reply #26 on:** October 20, 2011, 05:16:55 PM »

Today I finished putting up the hoops on one greenhouse. Each hoop is made from 3 pieces of 1" emt conduit spliced together by 6" long pieces of chain link fence top rail. Their only purpose is to hold the greenhouse plastic up.

miguynmkoi · « **Reply #27 on:** October 21, 2011, 09:52:41 AM »

Looking good!

Zoe · « **Reply #28 on:** October 21, 2011, 12:44:46 PM »

I have been keeping up with your progress. So jealous. I always feel bad for my fish when it gets cold. This winter it is not supposed to get as cold as last year. I had my husband look at the pics and his response was do you know how much that would cost? So .... not anytime soon for me.

Cindy

SueSTx · « **Reply #29 on:** October 21, 2011, 01:26:09 PM »

Looking good...where will the door be?