Nightmare Pond Liner Situation :(

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Although i now live in Southampton i still own my old house back in Somerset. I want to put this house on the market ASAP but about 1month ago the pond in the back garden started to leak badly. Luckily there are no goldfish in the pond (though at 3000+ gallons it is a large pond). Due to the amount of plants growing in & around the pond and the fact that the sides have become a bit grimey with age it was very difficult to find the leak but today we finally managed to locate it.

At the bottom of the waterfall in the bottom there is an underwater shelf/ledge (max depth 1ft) which has some pond plants growing on it, which then goes to a vertical drop to the deepest part of the pond. The pond plants which i bought over 5years ago have actually peiced the thick black rubber pond liner with their root networks in dozens of places on the shelf so that it is now riddled with holes.

So i guess on the plus side i have at last found the location of the pond leak. But i'm now stressed as i want to get this house on the market and its not going to look great with a large half-full broken pond as its main garden feature. I really don't know what to do right now- how to fix it or whether i should fix it etc.

This is an exact picture of the affected area when i first built the pond almost 6 years ago;

What should i do ?
What ways can you fix a multiple punctured old thick black rubber pond liner?

 

[Tolak]

Look online, they sell patch kits. They work similar to patching a tire inner tube, so you will have to drain the pond down to the leak & dry it.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Thanks Tolak . I found these patch kits online;

http/www.comparestoreprices.co.uk/by-make/p/pondxpert-pond-equipment.asp

The old pond liner is rough & dirty- if i can't clean it to its former state will the pond tape still stick to the liner do you know?

 

[Tolak]

Reasonably clean is OK, from what I understand you will be roughing up the area where the adhesive goes with sandpaper or some such, so that will grind off any dirt. Dry is more important.

 

[Davo86]

What size is the hole Tokis-Phoenix? As said if you can drain the area and dry it as best as possible the repair patches can seal it completely

HDP repair kit

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Thankyou for all the help everyone. I've had a long think about the situation and have decided to leave the pond as it is. There are a lot of little holes in the effected area and so i feel that even using a patch kit it would be a bit of a bodge job (not to mention it would be a lot of hassle as the roots of the plant have grown under the existing liner). What the pond really needs is a new liner, and considering the house is going to be sold i don't think its going to be financially worth it (not to mention that whoever buys the house may not even want the pond).

Thanks again though everyone, really appreciate it !

 

[Tizer]

Not many people when buying a house favour a pond anyway, its not child safe and the chances of you finding a buyer who actually wants a pond will be a lot slimmer than finding someone who doesnt. So it really wouldnt be worth the effort me thinks Leave it or fill it in

 

[ZoddyZod]

as Tizer said, ponds aren't generally appealing to buyers.

I bought my place back in March and the first thing I did was fill the pond in.

Get some quotes for filling it in and turfing over the top (it didn't cost me much). You might find it will help the sale.