A well-installed liner doesn’t need a lot of direct maintenance. Mostly you’ll need to keep an eye on your anchor trench to make sure it’s not disturbed, and the liner isn’t pulling out (unlikely). In general, avoid doing a lot of walking or driving machinery over the trench. If it starts to look like the soil is sinking, add more of your fill material until it’s up to grade again.
When you’re doing maintenance on your pond — clearing out debris, vacuuming mulm from the bottom, checking your equipment, and so on, take special care not to drag heavy items across the liner. Pick large tree limbs or other things up carefully when you remove them from the water and try to avoid walking on the liner whenever possible. During maintenance checks, make sure your liner is completely covered if the material is sensitive to UV light. Keep in mind the terms of the warranty when you check the depth of the covering material in the case of PVC and EPDM.
Suppose you’re going to place a large stone or even a heavy statue with some rough edges into the pond. In that case, it’s a good idea to put a cushion (a few layers of folded geotextile) underneath to minimize wear on the liner itself.
Make it a policy to always use smooth, rounded stones like river rock in your pond to avoid scuffs and scratches, which can become weak points. Rough, sharp, or angular stones will do nicely on the pond’s border, as long as they don’t touch the liner and can’t fall in. There are hundreds of attractive ponds featured on the internet to give you ideas for safe decorative treatments.
If the liner does spring a leak by some accident, you have some options for repairing it. If the damage is limited to one or two holes or even several in a small area, you can apply a patch. Still, if you see extensive damage in a large area or more severe damage in a critical spot (the bottom of the pond is an example), you’ll want to take a closer look. Do you know what caused it? Is it a problem from one of the specific sources we described? It’s fruitless to repair a liner if the problem is just going to come back again. Maybe it’s time to bow to the inevitable and remove that tree after all. You may decide to replace it with an attractive, slow-growing specimen confined in a large planter, or you can encircle it entirely with a heavy-duty root barrier. Talk to your local nurseryman to figure out your best options.
Different liner types have specific methods for patching. In most cases, you’ll need to drain the pond far enough that the waterline is several inches below the hole, giving you a dry surface to work with. Whether you’re using glue or tape, though, it’s best to have a stiff area to push against when you’re using the roller to make a tight seal. That’s a challenge for a liner already in place, so it’s time to get those creative juices flowing.
Just in case, here are some short videos from BTL Liners demonstrating how to patch either small or large holes in their AquaArmor line.
