Pond Building 101 - Construction

Introduction
Before
Digging
Gunnite
Curing
Rocks
Landscape
Plaster
Deck
Testing
Filter
Fish!
Visitors

Construction - Plaster

The shoes of a plasterer -- Yikes, spikes!

Plaster was a little like the gunnite. The plaster is "shot" onto the walls of the pool with a hose then smoothed out by hand tools. We are using a very dark plaster. Brightly colored koi really look nice against the dark background, although dark algae will cover the interior walls of the pond soon anyway.

The plaster was done in early November and we filled the pond with water the same day. Doug had left us with a water meter on each hose to measure the volume of water going separately into pond and filter. Our water pressure was great and it only took 3 hours to fill 810 gallons in the settling chamber and biological filter areas of the filter and 2,663 gallons in the pond itself. You'll see on the next page what a difference the water makes!

The next task for us was brushing the pond walls to remove calcium deposits from the curing concrete, ensuring a smooth pond wall and saves the fish from injuries. A 1-foot wide scrubber brush on the end of a long handle and a few abdominal muscles remove sharp little bumps of calcium from the pool walls and bottom. Thick clouds of sediment stirred up with every brushing--most of that gunk found its way into the bottom drains and eventually the pond water cleared up--just in time for a Holiday party!

Brushing had to be done twice a day for what seemed like an eternity, but was probably only a couple of weeks.

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