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  1. #1
    Senior Member Rank = Nanasai Gray's Avatar
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    Gray's Pond Build Diary

    Hi all,

    I've promised to post some pics of my build for a while but in all honesty nobody really wants to see just pictures of a hole in the ground!

    I decided to go with my original plan of having a 7ft deep area and then a gradual slope up to the wider mouth of the pond. Glad I did this now I can finally see the pond taking shape.

    Should be around 6-7,000 gallons when complete as it'll be 1metre out of the ground too.

    Anyways, over the last week I've been adding things to the hole as opposed to just taking mud out of it.

    But here's a backcast over the work to date!

    Marked out the pond area with liner paint and my wife agreed to the size. But being honest, after a little rain washed away the original marks I put them back down again but I took the liberty of making them somewhat bigger!



    It went unnoticed luckily so I cracked on with digging out.



    And then when had a rather large hole in the side garden for a few weeks...



    Had some dry'ish weather the other week so fixed up and dropped in my JBR bottom drain and air feed.

    The weather started to pick up yet again a week or so after and we finally had the time and energy to mix up and pour 3 tons of fibered C35 over 6mm rebar.




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  3. #2
    Senior Member Rank = Nanasai Gray's Avatar
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    Lucky for me I have a wife who loves some hard graft and is also a dab hand with a cement mixer!



    After all that, I came back from work today to have a walk around the pond base, check for consistency and then have a light tip-toe over the new pond concrete.

    Solid as a rock! Gotta love a nice strong mix.

    The weather has been a bit drizzly over the last 48hrs so it's keeping the concrete nice and damp to aid the cure.

    Block work is the next task.

    BTW, if anyone reading this is at the block purchase point of their bills, check out Huws Gray the merchant online. I've picked up 7N dense blocks for 67p each!!! 288 for £200 (approx) which to me was great value based on all the other quotes I'd received to date.

    Next up will be showing off my new Stihl saw and how to cut hollow blocks at angles to go up the sloping base. (pray for me...)

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  5. #3
    Hi,
    good work...enjoyed reading that and look forward to progress.
    Ian

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  7. #4
    Senior Member Rank = Nanasai Handy Kenny's Avatar
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    Hi Gray,

    Great work keep it up! It will seem like a never ending task from where you are now. A wee thought - make yourself a wooden template, horizontal at the top angled at the bottom that will give you the angle to cut each block at as all the cuts probably won't start at the same height on the block. You will probably need to measure and cut each block as you go. If you go for a dry test run remember about the mortar between the blocks.

    Kenny

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  9. #5
    Senior Member Rank = Supreme Champion freddyboy's Avatar
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    Hi gray nice one mate on the thread and the build so far mate. Nice large garden to work in as well. Good to see in the photo all the family involved. Makes the build that much sweeter. The kids and the wife saying. We BUILT THAT. Great stuff.
    lots of photo s mate. Great journal. I will be following this mate. As the above said. You feel as though your getting no where. But as every block goes down you are. Even though you feel you ain't. My biggest frustration when mine was built this year was the rain. And weather. Anyway nice one mate. Looking good.

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  11. #6
    Senior Member Rank = Nanasai Gray's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Handy Kenny View Post
    Hi Gray,

    Great work keep it up! It will seem like a never ending task from where you are now. A wee thought - make yourself a wooden template, horizontal at the top angled at the bottom that will give you the angle to cut each block at as all the cuts probably won't start at the same height on the block. You will probably need to measure and cut each block as you go. If you go for a dry test run remember about the mortar between the blocks.

    Kenny
    Cheers Kenny, the template is a good shout. I fell asleep last night thinking about block cutting so this is very helpful! I quite like block work / brick work as you can see progress fairly quickly. Well, that's usual for walling, etc so hoping for the same on the pond...

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  13. #7
    Senior Member Rank = Nanasai Gray's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by freddyboy View Post
    Hi gray nice one mate on the thread and the build so far mate. Nice large garden to work in as well. Good to see in the photo all the family involved. Makes the build that much sweeter. The kids and the wife saying. We BUILT THAT. Great stuff.
    lots of photo s mate. Great journal. I will be following this mate. As the above said. You feel as though your getting no where. But as every block goes down you are. Even though you feel you ain't. My biggest frustration when mine was built this year was the rain. And weather. Anyway nice one mate. Looking good.
    Cheers Freddy, appreciate you following the thread! I'll be sure to keep it updated. Any ideas or guidance is always appreciated along the way.

    I'm very lucky to have a decent space to work in for the pond. Makes the job somewhat easier. We've got a normal garden on the other side of the house, you know grass, patio, trees, etc instead of this mud pit we have this side! Makes it hard work in slushy mud, especially pushing barrows of ballast around.

    I hope to get the block work up this side of xmas but all depending on the weather too.

    The kids and wife are enjoying the process, but when it rains it tends to be just me out there grafting! Funny that huh.

    Will be cracking on again this Friday so I'll post an update after that. Gray's Pond Build Diary

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  15. #8
    Senior Member Rank = Supreme Champion freddyboy's Avatar
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    Nice one gray. Looking forward to it mate. I have just started to have my shed built next to my new summer house. And an old wall raised to same hight as my new wall. So busy my self over the next week. My mate Shaun I'd doing the shed.
    eventualy I am putting a grow on in there. Your s is coming on good mate.

    and it s true as soon as the weather changes. Everyone likes to be gone some where.haha . The big mistake I made. I bought all my gear before the build. Nexus ultra sieve uv s. Pumps. When build was eventually finished . The 2x pumps was way to big for my build. 2x speck badu top pumps. A 12 and 14 . I ended up buying 2 x oases aqua 8000 pumps. And fitting them spot on as well.

    because thing s change so much as you go along. Then put a drum in. And another window. So as you can see thing s change. So my advice is buy at the end. Also I was putting a pod on skimmer line. Changed that to the ultra sieve. Anyway mate take care. And best of luck with the weather and the rest of the build.

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  17. #9
    Senior Member Rank = Nanasai Gray's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by freddyboy View Post
    Nice one gray. Looking forward to it mate. I have just started to have my shed built next to my new summer house. And an old wall raised to same hight as my new wall. So busy my self over the next week. My mate Shaun I'd doing the shed.
    eventualy I am putting a grow on in there. Your s is coming on good mate.

    and it s true as soon as the weather changes. Everyone likes to be gone some where.haha . The big mistake I made. I bought all my gear before the build. Nexus ultra sieve uv s. Pumps. When build was eventually finished . The 2x pumps was way to big for my build. 2x speck badu top pumps. A 12 and 14 . I ended up buying 2 x oases aqua 8000 pumps. And fitting them spot on as well.

    because thing s change so much as you go along. Then put a drum in. And another window. So as you can see thing s change. So my advice is buy at the end. Also I was putting a pod on skimmer line. Changed that to the ultra sieve. Anyway mate take care. And best of luck with the weather and the rest of the build.
    I've taken your advice here and I'm buying as I go along. It's tempting my to start grabbing pumps, etc because they are shiny new things but I'll wait! Thanks for that.

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  19. #10
    Senior Member Rank = Nanasai Gray's Avatar
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    Gray's Pond Build Diary

    So I managed to grab a few hours this weekend to crack on with some more block work.



    Took that photo from the upstairs window. Looks like a puddle but it's quite a big puddle when you stand near it!

    Slow going for the moment as I'm cutting angled blocks for levelling off the slope and also fitting them over 6mm rebar and backfilling with concrete. That said, I threw up a load of blocks on the back wall just to make some serious visual progress and the wall's now out of the ground! Nice feeling to have one wall above soil level.

    Just three bigger ones to go...

    I've become a dab hand with my new saw too. Haven't wasted a single block today so good going.

    If anyone's thinking of buying a saw then my advice (for the DIYer) is to buy a Makita over a Stihl saw. At half the price and a similar power there's no competition for us casual users. The Makita cuts the blocks and bricks just as well as a Stihl. Fitted mine with a Bosch blade and it really is like cutting a cake!

    TPRs going in next. Progress at last!!! Gray's Pond Build Diary
    Last edited by Gray; 27-11-2016 at 09:12 PM.

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  21. #11
    Senior Member Rank = Supreme Champion freddyboy's Avatar
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    Nice one mate looking goooood

    Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk

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  23. #12
    Senior Member Rank = Nanasai Gray's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by freddyboy View Post
    Nice one mate looking goooood

    Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk
    Cheers Freddy. Getting there! Taking my time and trying to doing it right first time. Should be ready for glassing before Xmas (I hope!).

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  25. #13
    Senior Member Rank = Supreme Champion freddyboy's Avatar
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    Looks good bud. Keep it up mate best fred

    Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk

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  27. #14
    Senior Member Rank = Nanasai Gray's Avatar
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    Managed to get a few hours in this weekend and also had some help!



    My eldest daughter (got four of the pink ones in my house - thanks god for the male dog!) is a dab hand with a pointing trowel and slathering on some mix for the blocks. After 4 or 5 goes she was bashing on the beds and edges faster than I was cutting blocks! Good girl Gray's Pond Build Diary Chip off the block this one.

    Gonna show her how to use a spirit level and rubber mallet this weekend and maybe I'll be able to just sit and watch my block work going up!

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  29. #15
    Great progress...takes me back a couple of years when I was in same position with build. Very exciting.
    ian

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  31. #16
    Senior Member Rank = Nanasai Gray's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by imc28 View Post
    Great progress...takes me back a couple of years when I was in same position with build. Very exciting.
    ian
    Cheers pal. It's a labour of love as you'll no doubt know! I'm getting faster with the blocks...but still not as fast as I want Gray's Pond Build Diary

  32. #17
    Senior Member Rank = Supreme Champion freddyboy's Avatar
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    Ha ha love the little one helping mate. I am the opposite. To you got 4 sons and no girls. I wanted a girl
    But fate dealt me 4 boys. Ah well the grand bains are some girls
    Looking good pal. Getting there.


    Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk

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  34. #18
    Senior Member Rank = Supreme Champion freddyboy's Avatar
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    I used polyflex on the tangible returns and bottom drain. And gold label on my windows hope this helps

    Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk

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  36. #19
    Senior Member Rank = Supreme Champion freddyboy's Avatar
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    my pond is round. your s is squarish,remember. when rendering to put some render or concrete in the corners
    so crud or muck don t settle there. also it will help to circulate the water better. for the tangible returns i also had a bit put around the bottom of pond
    where base meet s wall s to slightly slope it. about 3 to 4 inch high. i will put a photo on to show you what i mean. never ever is there any waste on the bottom of my pond
    it s to good. i cannot use sinking food. unless i turn bottom drain off. it s gone in minutes. hope this helps. i know you a little off this part . but just to jogg your thinking. like you say or the saying goes do it right
    first time. fred

  37. #20
    Senior Member Rank = Supreme Champion freddyboy's Avatar
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    Look at edges near the base.tapers up to walls. That is what i meant. All the best fred

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