Ed's pond build

[eds]

Hi Ed,

I take it your not going to be staying at this house to long

Yeah that's a factor too! Got to be easy to reuse some of the stuff and not have a huge concrete bowl when I sell it on!

[eds]

Don't you just love half term holidays?!!!

Filter chamber digging now finished. Even finished the sump chamber,



Was going to pour the floor for the sump chamber today but unfortunately I forgot that I'd lent my extension cable to a mate so can't get electricity to the mixer!!! Going to either try and do it later if it's light enough or it'll have to be first thing tomorrow morning and then hope it will have gone off enough to lay on by late tomorrow afternoon. At least I won't need to stand on it to lay those blocks!

[Gazza]

Hi Ed,

You have a great job...........some of the time

Looking good mate and i can see this up and running in not time ready for the BBQ and a few beers round the new pond

What is the sump for is this for whilst the pond is being built or after

[eds]

You're right Gazza; for 13 weeks a year it's a perfect job! (I love it for most of the other weeks too!)

The sump is for afterwards. The plan is that all the waste water will end up in there to be pumped onto the garden. Not one litre of water from this pond will be sent down the drains, it will all be used to irrigate the garden. I decided to go with a sump to try and reduce pipework in the filter chamber. I'm thinking of putting a gutter of some kind into the finished floor feeding into the sump.

[Gazza]

I thought as much as i know you had spoke about something like this before so the water will go on the garden

I use as much of my waste as i can for the garden and cleaning of filters and anything i can

[eds]

More progress today.
Poured the floor for the sump, only took one load!


Removed the shuttering,


Now just waiting for the base to set so I can lay the blocks. Hoping the weather stays dry and warm so I can get them down this afternoon but doubt I'll be that lucky!

[Gazza]

Hi Ed,

You have got the weather mate and fingers crossed it will continue so you can crack on and look forward to the progress

[eds]

Well I was frustrated by rain this morning which delayed my start but still got done all the bits I needed to do today before the rugby started!

First I laid the blocks for the sump chamber, two courses of blocks.


Then I did some work, watched the Italy v Wales game and let them go off for a while before pouring the concrete around them for the wall footings for the filter chamber.



Plan for tomorrow now is to build the blockwork wall up to ground level on the short side facing the house I've laid today. The longer side which will be the wall between the filter area and the pond will be left open until the pond is dug so after tomorrow I'm ready for the digger!

[Gazza]

Hi Ed,

Its all taking shape now and what a pain with the rain today but at least you got done what you wanted

[ageinghippy]

Hi Ed,

Looks like you`ve got a couple of power leads for your pumps in as well. Good thinking.


Chris (another one)

[eds]

Chris I wish I'd been that forward thinking! I found those when digging the filter chamber and just need to find the other ends now and wire them in (they aren't currently connected anywhere I can find and not to my electricity supply!) They're both armoured and seem like perfect cable but they aren't buried very deep. I might end up digging them up and laying them again at the right depth along with the mains water feed and a waste pipe to send the dirty water onto the garden.

This will be the last bit of progress for at least a week or so.

Despite the rain meaning an early finish this morning I've laid most of the wall for the filter chamber up to ground level.


As it stands now there will be a double block wall to separate the filter chamber from the pond and I've laid the footing for that here,

I won't build that wall until the pond is dug and then I can get it perfectly straight and level and I will tie it into the part wall I've just built.

[eds]

Could do with some opinions please everyone.

For the floor of the filter chamber I'm going to pour concrete after digging the trench for the bottom drain and installing it. The original plan was for the floor just to be sloped and maybe create a slight gully to direct any spillages into the sump and then have waste pipes from the sieve and overflow going directly into the sump.

However I saw these, http://www.bcprofiles.co.uk/storm-drain ... ml?added=1 and was thinking it might look better to have one of these down alongside the concrete footings I've just cast feeding into the sump and then have the waste and overflow pipes much shorter and just feeding into this. What do you reckon? Good idea or just an extra hassle and cost and not really needed?

[Bob Hart]

Ed,

You'll never get the sump pumped empty, so there will always be waste water in there. It will also smell as well, been there done that. If you install the storm drain, which would look good, you'll probably end up with more smell as it's an open grate.

Have you thought about putting the waste pipes direct into the inlet of a waste pump? One of those with a basket in front of it to collect large solids, so the pump wont block?

[oldgit]

hi Ed
My old pond had a sump drain with pump.The sump size was 2ftx2ftx3ft so quite large.To do my water changes and cleaning i emptied this sump 2-3 times.Now thats alot of water to go on the grass especially during the drier months.Wasnt very nice to walk on after dumping water.
Its a great idea not to throw the water down the drain.A sprinkler on the end of the hose may stop the ground from getting too flooded,you could even pump some into a barrel to save for during the week.
The storm drain is a good idea if you could still use one.It will tidy things up.There is some filter house pics floating around that have this storm drain down the middle with vortex and filter drain pipe running into the drain,all looks very neat

Darren

[oldgit]

Oh Bob beat me to it
What about that manhole cover.Is it too far away or wrong direction?
If not and you have to dig a trench for power go a little deeper and connect the sump so you can dump some water.