Jersey Shore Pondscapes Videos · Transcript · · Updated
Using Concrete On Your Pond (Waterfalls And Streams Too) – Transcript
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- Chris explains that cement is an ingredient used to make concrete, which is the hard end product.
- Chris uses concrete around pond perimeters, waterfalls, and stream beds rather than building entire ponds out of concrete.
- Chris mixes 14 to 15 shovels of fine mason sand with half a bag of Portland cement and water without adding gravel.
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hello thanks for checking out my video and welcome to my channel Jersey Shore pondscapes videos my name is Chris and on this channel we talk all about koi ponds and waterfalls water gardens aquatic plants Pond filtration and just about everything and anything of having to do with backyard garden ponds so if you are looking to build the pond for yourself or you have a pond and you have some problems you have some questions or
want to learn more about things please check out my videos here I have a ton of really cool videos with a whole bunch of information for you guys so hopefully you can find something that can answer your questions and help you out and show you how to do things um so today's video we are talking about using concrete um in constructing a pond or a waterfall
or a stream or you know whatever you're doing around the pond um so first off before we get started I want to give you a fun fact here the terms concrete and cement are usually used in such a way that they can really mean the same thing when in reality they are two very different things
so the word cement is basically an ingredient okay cement is an ingredient that is used to make the end product the hard end product of concrete okay so it is an ingredient that you're going to mix with sand water
gravel okay things like this that end up hardening and forming concrete so when I say in my channel something about cement you'll know that I'm talking about the ingredient and when I say concrete I'm talking about the end product that I'm using in in the waterfall that's going to harden okay all right um so
over the years I have gotten many many questions about the use of concrete um you know people ask me is it safe for my fish uh you know is the concrete going to kill my fish is the water quality going to be you know um a problem and I have to tell you I've been building koi ponds for over 25
years professionally and I have always used concrete in some way shape or form around the pond and I have never ever had an issue with the concrete affecting the the water chemistry or you know a fish dying so um now um
I don't build the entire Pond out of concrete okay I do use the 45 mil EPDM Rubber liner and I'm just using concrete around the edges of the pond maybe to secure boulders to hold Rock I build my waterfalls using concrete to hold everything together and make it nice and strong River beds and streams I use a
bed of concrete in if I was to build a pond entirely out of concrete the entire Pond out of concrete um I honestly then I would be a little concerned about it and I I would coat that entire concrete surface with a liquid neoprene rubber coating um which will you know seal in any of
those toxins and it's safe for the fish and it's a black coating that's nice and dark in the pond so that the colors of your fish shine up you know will show much better um there are times when I've built a large koi pond and I use gravity fed filter systems and I will build a filter tank out of concrete a big box in the
ground out of concrete maybe something eight foot by five foot something like that and that I will also paint with that liquid neoprene rubber coating to seal it all and keep it all water tight and also I've built some Decks that overhang over the pond and I've put Piers concrete piers in the pond to support it and I paint that all with the
liquid neoprene rubber coating as well um you know it's definitely helps to seal everything but it also makes it look nicer in a pond right it's a black coating instead of the white cement right sticking out in the middle of the pond so um you know it's definitely something to consider so I basically use the concrete like I said it around the perimeter of a pond I don't put rocks and gravel in the
bottom of my ponds I'm using four inch bottom drains and they gravity feed them out into filter tanks I have a whole nother video on on the gravity fed filter systems and I have a whole nother video on why I do not like to use and put gravel on the bottom of my ponds so please check those out okay there's a lot of good information in there and there's a lot of good things to think about in there um but like I said I don't put rocks and
gravel in my pond instead I build a ledge four to six inches under water around the perimeter of the pond and they place all my rocks and boulders on that and it gives the appearance that the rock is coming up out of the water now sometimes I use concrete as you know a nice bead all along that shelf to place those Boulders in because it really makes um those Boulders set in there nice and strong so if some you know little kids
are running around the pond or walking around on the rocks on the pond nothing especially if they're round nothing is going to fall in or roll into the pond everything is set nice and secure and tight so it helps structurally you know around the perimeter to hold things in place and another thing that the concrete really helps to do is that
and when I put a bead of concrete down on the liner and I'm setting a big boulder on it that concrete underneath kind of acts as a cushion between the Boulder and the liner and it also acts um as almost like a like a grease underneath the boulder um not really but it helps to be able to slide and move that boulder around a little bit okay if you have that rock
straight on your liner and you need to move it over you know it could be a little harder harsher on the liner than it would be to just kind of slide it over on top of the cement the concrete so um you know it definitely helps with that now sometimes if I'm setting big boulders down on the ledge I might even put another piece of liner extra piece of liner down on top of the original
pond liner just as a little extra cushion a little extra protection and then put my bead to cement on top of that and set my boulders I will also use cement quite often in construction of the waterfalls right all those big boulders all those cracks and seams and crevices we set it all in concrete you know we'll we'll set a boulder in we'll put some concrete on
top we'll put another Boulder in on top of the concrete fill all the gaps in between the The Boulders with concrete right and so on and so forth this does two things as well one it's going to hold that waterfall really structurally strong right it's not going to move it's going to be set and everything's going to be tight and tied
together the other thing it does is it allows the water to run over the rocks and back into the pond without losing half of the water volume through cracks and crevices and the Rocks along the way as it goes down okay so that's really important um stream beds I run a whole bead of
concrete down in my my stream beds and set all my gravel and stone you know flat stones and stuff in that concrete rather than just putting a liner down filling it all up with loose gravel and then letting the water run through it that loose gravel holds all kinds of debris and sediment and I've seen stream beds that are a mess
with mud and algae growing in it and weeds and all kinds of crap just a mess so I have two other videos on this channel that are really pretty popular one is how to build a waterfall okay so I talk all about the construction of the waterfall and using this in the concrete and one on how to build a stream so if you're interested in doing either one of those
um please you know check out those videos there's a lot of good information there a lot of helpful stuff for you um so we'll talk you know all about how to build them there but here we're going to talk about the use of the concrete in those structures okay so and now another thing I just wanted to talk about briefly a lot of people like I said feel that the concrete is toxic okay and it's going to kill all
their fish um again I have never had an issue all right honestly I have never had an issue with this um so instead of using concrete they use a product it's a spray foam that comes in a can Okay um the spray foam is applied there's a straw that comes off the top of the can and you can you know spray it into
cracks and crevices in the rocks and it expands okay and and it Seals Everything up really nice you know you can spray some foam down put your Boulder on it you know and it's it's sealed um I have honestly I just I I do not like this product at all okay it's just me
um the reason being I have in my years gotten phone calls from clients who have ponds and they have a leak and they call me and say Hey you know I got your name from so and so uh you know can do you fix leaks can you come out and take a look at my pond so sure so I come out and I tell you
Time After Time After Time I find the leaks in the waterfalls and it's due to the spray foam that's just deteriorating okay it doesn't last long I mean you'll get a few years out of it absolutely but after that it starts to deteriorate it starts to dry rot it starts to just crumble it becomes like a sponge and the
water just soaks right through it and it leaks like crazy and it's just time after time after time I go to someone's house I start pulling rocks apart on the waterfall I see all the foam I see the water leaking through it and I'm like ah here we go again all right here we go again and here we go again Time After Time um so I don't like that so why would I
use it when I see these problems over and over again all right the other issue I have with it is its cost you know each little can of this stuff can cost 15 to 20 dollars if you're doing a big pond you've got big boulders you're doing a waterfall you're doing all this stuff how many cans of this stuff are you going to use like this is crazy right at fifteen to twenty dollars I can right
he has spent several hundred dollars on spray foam and it's not just the cost of it it's the fact that it's not going to last for very long all right you're gonna get a few years out of this stuff and then it's going to start leaking all right and then what you got to take the whole waterfall apart and spray it all again all right so no I'm putting Concrete in I have ponds I've built 20 years ago that I mean that