Post #314477 by pariartspaul on Sat, Jun 23, 2007 11:03 AM

It's been a week of disasters! We let the acrylic pool paint dry for a few days and filled the pond. Guess what? It leaked like a sieve, all over the place! When I emptied it, we discovered some holes in the concrete in the deep end wall that were the culprits. At the same time, portions of the pool paint kept coming up. To top it off, I primed the pump and tried it when the pool was filled... and nothing happened! It just got hot. Disaster all the way around.

This picture below is from last night when we filled it up the second time. We had the hose in the upper waterfall basin just to see what it might look like.

Well, the next day we ground off most of the pool paint we could and cemented and mortared the holes. After doing some more research I came up with this two part epoxy product from TAP Plastics call 'Coat-It'. It's a thick, durable epoxy made for coating ponds and boat hulls and it's a dark grey color. It took four gallon kits to cover the entire bottom and most of the sides. I would have put more on but by that time I got sick. I don't know if it was the fumes or exhaustion or if I got the flew from somewhere else, but right after I collapsed with a terrible 102 fever and was down for two days. By yesterday I was feeling better. The epoxy was cured so we filled the pond up again expecting the worse.... well, no leaks this time!!

I called the pump manufacturer and he said sometimes if new pumps aren't used for a while, the impeller gets stuck and you have to free it up by hand. I did it and it started right up! I tried the pump when the water was filled and it works fantastic. Whisper quiet, and it puts out a great volume of water. It's running through the cartridge filter and the water is nice and clear.

So my next step is to run the piping to the big waterfall. Then more sculpting with mortar to finish off the smaller waterfall. Whew! It's been a long, hard process. But it's starting to look like the pond I hoped it would be.

So listen to Uncle Paul's hard earned advice all you would-be pond builders.... NEVER use acrylic pool paint over raw concrete! The product is crap - a total waste of time and money. The epoxy sealer worked out beautifully so far.

That's the latest!