Simply Koi and More Koi

to have a up and running pond .The weather was good and at times overcast, mark decided after 4 hrs sleep to fiberglass the pond. He started at 1pm and with some help from me in between running round after the kids, Mark on his own and high on the fumes managed to completly glass the pond by 7pm.

heres a piccy of him working hard

[img]http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y199/vippy ... 0008-1.jpg[/img]

now all thats needed to do is a rub down, topcoat and make parts for the filters

Looks great Jane.

You keep working him hard, he deserves it - LOL

Soon be up and running and all the hard work will be worht it.

Have you fitted the window glass before fibreglassing???? It's usually th other way around, e.g. fibreglass into the frqame, then fit galss afterwards. Dont suppose it will matter much though.

bob ,

its only been done this way as the glass is already set into a big steel frame and cause of the frame mar set into place while building and before glassing

its a heavy window as it took tooof us to move it , then again not bad for a freebie

Looking good, he done well glassing out on his own as its no small job and once you start you need to keep going , well done its a real big turning point once that's over .

Mark,

How easy was it to fibreglass strainght onto the blocks? Did the blocks have a good flat finish to them and I guess you just left the mortar flat with the blocks? Not sure if you have fireglassed a pond before, just wondering if using this method used more resin, due to the 'probable' not so flat surface. (Although I have glassed onto some real rough render - you know who you are - LOL)

Bob, took a leaf out of Mark at cuttlebrooks book. when the pond was built i took care to make sure the cement between the blocks was flat. this gave me a pretty good surface to glass on to. As per "GRPJohn"'s instructions it used 2.5 times the weight of glass in resin.if that makes sence..
i've glassed some pretty big things before (roof canopies and boats) but never a pond and i must say spending hours in a hole filled with styrene was not my first choice for a weekend.
well its now flow-coated and Jane cant wait for it to have water in it. i've roughed in the filters but now i've got to make all the connectors and the second box for the uplift tubes for the skimmer circuit.
heres a few more pictures....
[img]http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y199/vippy ... 0005-2.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y199/vippy ... 0002-1.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y199/vippy ... 0004-2.jpg[/img]
view of the main uplift box with one of nine tubes in place
[img]http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y199/vippy ... 0006-3.jpg[/img]
rough setup of main filters
[img]http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y199/vippy ... C_0007.jpg[/img]
and one of the garden

also got to put the wooden top round the pond, fix it to the pergola. Oh and build the wooden frame around the window....


will it never end..

Hi Mark,

All looking great now, you dont ever stop do you??????

Suprised how you can still see the block though, is that a trick of the light or can they really be seen that much?????

The way I fibreglass I allow 2kg's of resin per square metre of matting, would your method equate to the same? If you dont know, how many square meteres were there and how much resin did you use?

I did a bit of glassing yesterday and in the heat it was horrible. I only had a couple of hours work, so you must have had lots of fun doing it all weekend in that heat. I have often put a fan at one end pointing downwards, which then blows the styrene around and make's it a tad easier to breathe.

well here goes the math.

1 layer
32 sq/mtr 600g csm and then tissue on top as i went round which equates to about 20 kilo of cloth and 2 kilo of tissue
i used just over 60 kilo of resin.
so yes its about 3 times the weight of cloth to resin.

as for seeing the blocks, yes you can but the photo does emphasise it.

32 square metres, 60 kilo of resin = 2 liko resin per square metre (roughly)

I do the same, 600 + tissue, gives a great finish

Looking forward to seeing the filtration running now.

yes bob, filtration dont you start. she who thinks is in charge says "it won't take long will it?"

only 18 uplifts to make and plumb, 12 tank connectors to make bolt on and seal, 3 eazy type thingies to make from scratch and all the other bits and bobs i have forgotten.......

Only a couple of days work for you then Mark

Mark

Blimey it looks the business Mukka, well done you and the Misses and in such a quick period of time. I'm picking up lots of tips from your thread, picture, calcs and other members input.

However, I don't have the confidence to do the glasing. Does anyone know of any fibre glass chaps in the south west London area? I mean I take my hat off to Mark and Bob sweating in all the that sun and not inhaling But sod that for a game of soldiers I'm gonna start saving now for that stage! Any recommendations around my area would be gratefully received.

Thanks
TicToc

Well done mark,you sure did a good job in the heat.Did you lose much resin in the buckets?I am glad you didnt want any help as I had had enough laminating in the heat all week, i must be getting old.!!!! Again ,well done mate.!!

Hi tic tac contact me re. glassing.

Tictac

as john says give him a shout and he will look after you

Thanks Vippymini and grpjohn (pm sent). Your all at it sniffing that stuff! You must be mad in that baking sun or am I missing something!

Tic Toc