subject: Installing A Prefabricated Pond [print this page] The crucial part of this type of pond is its excavation of the hole - the hole in which the prefabricated unit will sit. Prefabricated ponds come in may shapes and designs. Prefabricated ponds are of different shapes and sizes. Whichever pond you have selected, turn it over and place it exactly on the place where you want to install your pond. You may require your friends help to turn the pond over. What you need to do now is to mark the outline around the rim of the pond. You can make use of stick, handfuls of sand or spade to mark an outline. It is not a bad idea to bring the mark out by 15cm to ensure that any wrong measurement will not spoil the entire process.
The above process work for regular pond shape, if you have an irregular shape of pond, for instance like a kidney shape or any other awkward shape, you need different method to mark the outline. Place the pond on to its planned position and make sure that it is leveled properly. Now you need to put the stacks or canes in vertically in the ground with even intervals around the entire unit. Take the unit away and later measure the size of the shelves that are patterned into it and also the depth of the unit. Now start doffing the hole taking marked point as a guideline. Dig just a little deeper than the required depth. Now rake over the bottom of the hole. Place the unit inside the hole and press it down with a little force. Now remove the unit again and you will see that you have an impression of the deeper section on the raked soil.
Excavate the new marked section down to 10cm at the place where bottom of the unit will rest. Keep checking the surface for level with spirit level or straight edged board. It is better to check the level of the board at 4-5 different directions to ensure the smooth flat level base.
Now remove any sharp or large stones from the hole and filled the hole with 5 cm of builders layer. Now position the unit into the hole carefully. Make sure that the unit sits in place should be flat and level. Use spirit level to check the level of the unit.
Next step is to stabilize the unit by filling in it a small quantity of water. This few inched of water in the pond will help the unit to settle on sand at bottom properly. Now fill the remaining large gaps around the unit properly. Use wood piece to ram sides down while back filling. By filling water and back filling at the same time you can avoid the buckling of the walls.
To finish off the job, fill the pond with 10cm of water. On the edges of the pond you can either plant perennials or use paving stones along the edges of the pond.
