Filter house progress with filtration units, wall cladding and initial felt on roof

With the excellent progress having the pond fully fibreglassed everyone's focus has switch to the filter house.

The raised floor started to go into the filter house to ensure all the units would have their water level at the pond height. This is about two thirds done with an area left so the four 2" return pipes and the waste pipe could be connected up plus the entrance of all the pipes could be concreted in.

The tongue and groove cladding went onto the back two walls first and then under the large windows. The final side was left open so all filtration kit could get in.

In parallel to all the filtration being carefully moved down into the filter house floor the initial layer of roof felt was being installed. This was important because rain was expected overnight and we needed to have the filter house watertight because electrics are going in on Friday.

As you will see from the picture above, once the filtration had been moved into filter house floor the final front side of the filter house could start to have the timbers and stable door put in place. Looking good although stable door currently opens the wrong way but that will be changed.

It's now taking shape you can see where all the windows will be located so they should let a good amount of light in.

The two sieves have been connected to the four 4" pipes from the two drains and the two skimmers. Those 4" ball valves (blue handles) are massive!

The two rotos have also been put into place although connecting up will happen in the next few days

 

Finally the pond fill has started (thanks Steve Glimmer) and you can already see the number of leaves on the water surface which is why we went for such significant skimmers. Filling may take a while!

 

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Fibreglassing done and filtration starting to arrive on site

Firstly, Happy St George's Day to all.

So Steve and James did a marathon 13 hour day yesterday and managed to get the following fibreglassing process complete

• A layer of resin to soak into the insulation and make it go hard
• The first layer of fibreglass matting
• More resin and then wait for a while for it to "go off" (assuming that's set / harden)
• Apply a second layer of fibreglass matting
• Apply more resin and again wait for it to go off.
• Apply a final black resin top coat. Note do not to get this resin onto your skin because it is some form of acid and burns!

Looks stunning and so big. The dry warmer weather has helped it to dry out but we are going to leave it to set thoroughly until this Friday before starting to fill.

 

The filtration also started to come on site so we now have both sieves, both flow friends, both sequence pumps and a lot of huge 4" ball valves.

 

Also as you can see on all the pictures the dry and warmer weather has really helped the clay soil dry out across the garden.

 

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Pond insulation complete, garden levelling part one completed and filter house timbers in place

Another few busy days with multiple teams on site.

The initial levelling of the garden is now complete although a further 60 to 80 tonnes of top soil will go down before turfing. We have stopped here because this allows the heavy clay soil to dry out in the sun.

All the pond block work was pointed and any rough edges were smoothed down. After that the new "flexible" 12.5mm insulation was cut to shape including the four pond return pipes and stuck onto the pond walls. Going with the 12.5mm thickness allowed the sheets to flex around the corners. Once all the sheets were in place any gaps were filled with the same black resin as was used to attach the sheets.

The pond depth is going to be 7ft 8 by the edges down to 8ft by the bottom drains. Now the insulation is on it seems to look so much bigger and deeper. Really pleased.

Over the past two days the timber structure of the filter house started to go up. We had a few changes of plan as it was going up but the final structure is looking excellent. Half of the floor will be a raised mezzanine level (see the bottom picture) so I can do gardening / potting whilst the whole lower level will contain all the filtration.

 

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Pond block work complete and garden levelling

Yesterday was one of those days where there was a large amount of visible progress and also we reached the major milestone of the block work completing on the main pond. Looks truly stunning!

 

The heavy clay soil has been levelled out across the garden so again that makes a significant difference being able to easily visualise the how it will all look upon completion.

 

Now the under layer of clay soil is level across the garden the first of many loads of top soil arrived on the drive. Nothing can really grow on the clay (even grass) so this top soil will be spread across the whole garden. The first few barrow loads have been put into place (see right hand side below)

 

The filter house has had the waterproofing layer added around the outside of the block work and has been partially back filled so again more good progress.

All coming together really well.

 

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Filter house (pipework all in and block-work complete) and significant progress with garden landscaping

At the end of last week the weather seriously turned against us and we had two days of heavy rain. The constant down pour resulted in the garden becoming a complete mud bath and therefore working / walking around became very tough going. Saying that good progress continues to be made.

The final three courses of block work have been completed around two thirds of the pond. This is excellent because we can now see the full pond depth and the new height of the garden. The pipe work connections from the pond right into the filter house are also now complete.

The trench for power cables, waste pipes and water feed has been dug out between the filter house and the main flower bed. The waste pipes and power cables have been put into position. I admit the following picture of the trench is not the most exciting but it is good to track progress!

 

 

The final courses of block work have gone onto the filter house so that is now just above ground level and ready for waterproof sealing.

 

Now the backfilling of the pond and pipe runs is complete the levelling of the soil across the garden has now progressed with pace.

 

We also made a decision to remove a flower bed that was at the edges of the previous pond (under the digger arm) to open up the garden from the new pond viewing patio area. This seems to have really opened up the main part of the garden.

 

We have moved the larger shrubs from the bed nearest to the house. This will clear the view through to the pond and to the rest of the garden from the house.

 

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Pipework connections, filter house and main pond block work

The past few days have been a combination of easily visible block work progress and then the tougher connection of pipework.
The filter house is now taking shape with six courses of blocks (on their edges) on all four sides. All the pipework (the four 4" pipes in and the four 2" returns) will get into the filter house via a nice rectangular opening at the bottom of the blockwork that is two blocks high. See the bottom left of the picture below.

The block work on the main pond is now all up at the same level so you can see the sweeping bending at the top right corner of the picture below has been completed.

The 2" return pipes (white) into the main pond have now be attached to the main pipes coming from the filter house. We should not underestimate the amount of effort it took to cut pipe work to size, glue and attach a combination of 45 / 90 degree corners. Very time consuming and tough work for the team.

Following a meeting with the gardener it was agreed that given the amount of soil we have on site it will allow us to level more of the garden. This will result in the parts of the garden being raised by an additional four to five inches more than initially thought (now upto a total of sixteen inches). The levelling of the garden, raising / replanting of flower beds and returfing of the whole lawn will start tomorrow morning and is expected to take five days.
It was decided that an additional course of block work would be required on the main pond. This means the skimmers needed to be raised by a block as can be seen below. You can also see the second skimmer arrived on site today and the connection of them both to 4" pipework began.

With the combination of

• the slight increase in the length and width of the pond from the original thoughts during the dig phase
• plus this new increased depth

it is thought that the overall pond size is creeping up. The team working on the pond and I have each estimated the revised pond size. The guesses are as follows

• James 8k
• Steve 8.2k
• Myself 8.7k
• Jim 9.5k

Lets see when the fill happens!

 

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Main pond block work near completion and first layer of filter house in place

We have been very lucky with the dry weather so far, so progress with block work has continued at a good pace. The main pond is now three courses of block work from completion. It is now at a point where we can see the exact shape and we are really pleased with it. Spirits with the team are very high especially because the block work is perfectly level.
Rather than have a perfectly flat pond bottom we went for a six inch graduation from pond edge down to the bottom drains. In theory this should assist with waste removal and help to prevent dead spots.
Our next project is to level the garden so therefore the height / depth of the pond will be increasing by upto 16 inches based on the current ground level. This has worked out in our favour and we now estimate the overall pond depth to be looking more like six foot three inches at the edges and then down to seven foot by the bottom drains once insulation and glassing is complete.
Four two inch pressure pipe returns have been build into the pond which will ensure we maintain good water movement. The location of the skimmers has been agreed and they will at opposite ends at the widest part of the pond. You can see one in place waiting for the final courses of block work within the picture below.

The filter house also now has its first course of block work down. I have learnt is the most important course because once this is down and level the rest of the rows can be quickly put down. These blocks are being layed on their edge because they don't need to be as solid and supportive as those in the pond. This is good news because this means the walls will need less courses and therefore good fast progress next week.

 

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Block work starts to go in

So the timing of the bank holiday weekend caused a stop to proceedings for a few days. The initial 240 blocks, with cement, and a few bags of pea shingle arrived on the drive on Saturday morning. The first course was put in place during on Tuesday for my review. This was an excellent idea not to do a second course because this will be the final shape so essential to get it right.
On Wednesday morning we agreed to a slight change to one edge by taking it a block wider. The real building work can now start at pace especially as the next batch of 240 blocks also arrived on the drive today.
When I arrived home in the evening the initial 5 to 6 courses were down and I'm really pleased. The sweeping curves will look stunning once complete. The block work progress was covered up over night to protect from frost but I took a few progress shots
.

The pipework into the filter house is also progressing and this picture shows the concrete base and pipework above it. We decided not to concrete the pipework into the base and instead we will have a raised floor. This will allow all pipework and electrics to be located under the flooring which will "in theory" result in a tidier filter house.

 

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