Step-by-step: How To Fix Pond Liner To Wood

You’ve been itching to make a pond in your backyard. Perhaps you are wanting a pretty addition to the landscaping in your yard, or perhaps you are a koi fish enthusiast. Whatever your reasoning, you now need to know how you can attach your pond liner to the wood deck that you will be attaching it to.

While wood is not the most common material to attach a pond liner to, the best way to affix your liner to wood is by using an adhesive spray on the liner. Make sure to use treated wood so that the wood doesn’t decay over time from the water wear.

Using a adhesive spray may seem straightforward enough, but there is more to lining your pond than just anchoring it. You need to make sure it’s the right size and make sure that you don’t accidently puncture the liner. You need to install it in the right way to make sure you get the most out of your pond, and don’t have to worry about repairing it sometime in the future.

How to Install a Pond Liner

1. Before installing your liner in your pond, you will want to install an underlayment. Underlayments are a thick extra layer that protects your liner from being pierced by rocks, sticks, or roots.
   
   You can use almost anything as an underlayment like old newspapers, sand, or those old towels that have been hanging around forever and are stained with years worth of hair dye. You want the underlayment to be at least half an inch thick to provide the needed protection for your liner.
   
2. Spread your liner over your hole, pushing it down by walking on it or sending your children to walk on it for you until it has been pushed into all the corners of the hole. You will need a fair allowance of the liner to come up past the top of the pond, which you will temporarily hold down with rocks or other heavy objects to prevent it from moving.
   
   This allowance should be about a foot to a foot and a half out from the edge of your pond.
   
3. To prevent against stretching of the liner, you will want to add a couple of inches of water to the bottom of your pond. The liner will be able to stretch out as it needs to, and you will be able to remove your rocks as needed instead of having to worry about that after you have already sealed your liner down.
   
4. Spray both the wood and the liner with the adhesive spray. Allow for the spray to sit for a couple of minutes to become tacky.
   
5. Place the liner over the wood, matching the sticky sides together and apply pressure. You can do this either by pressing on it, sitting on it for a time, or just by reapplying the rocks you were using earlier.
   
6. It’s at this time that you can begin covering the liner however you had planned, trimming away any excess liner that you may have.
   
7. Fill your pond, adding plants and other landscaping as you wish.

The great thing about adhesive sprays is that they are not limited to use on just wood. You can use the sprays for the more traditional cement or ceramic as well.

What Not to Do

When creating your pond, there are so many things for you to do, that it may seem rather overwhelming. That’s why we’re here: to help to make sure that when you are lining your pond you are careful not to fall into these common pitfalls – or in this case, pond-falls.

1. Not using a large enough liner
   
   • When cutting out your liner, it may be tempting to only cut out enough to fill the pond itself. However, it is very important that you have an excess outside of the pond itself. This is so that you have room to anchor your liner, and also prevents against leaking in the future.
     
2. Not aerating the pond
   
   • When your pond is not properly aerated, this can cause damages to your liner later down the line. When your water is not properly aerated, not only will your fish not have enough oxygen, but your water is more likely to freeze over. When the water freeze, the ice can cause rips and tears in the liner.
     
     While it is possible to repair said rips, it’s easier just to prevent against such a happening than to take the time to fix it. It’s also ultimately cheaper. You can find a cheap aerator online for as low as $25.
     
3. Choosing a liner based on price
   
   • Look, we all want to save money, and sometimes purchasing the cheapest pair of sunglasses or milk works out. But like shoes, clothing, and bread, pond liners aren’t all created equal. While you don’t have to get the most expensive liners on the market, you should be willing to put a little extra money into the liner. You are going to want one that is strong and will last.
     
     Avoid plastic liners or liners that or 20-30mm thick. They are easily punctured and don’t last as long as other liners. Get a liner that is made with ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM) rubber.
     
4. Not protecting the liner
   
   • Not only do you need to have protection underneath the liner, but you also need to have protection on top of the liner because there will be times when you will need to enter the pond to clean it. Having an added protective layer will help you not damage the liner in the process. This can be done by adding soft sand or pebbles to the bottom of your pond.
     
5. Using untreated wood
   
   • If you’re using wood as your main anchor for your liner, you have to make sure that the wood has been treated and won’t weather with the water. Otherwise, the wood will be prone to warping and rotting as it ages, making for a rather unstable anchor for your pond liner.