Thursday, 1 August 2013

The invisible pond liner

Wildlife pond creation in Chepstow using Bentonite liner
The pond after 4 years
Want something that will blend into the local environment, looking for all the world as if it has always been there?  Bentonite is a great liner for this.  It is compacted with soil, making it pretty much invisible.

Standard, butyl liners are hard to disguise but there's no such problem with Bentonite.

We were tasked with creating a wildlife-friendly area in a small field on the side of the client’s property.  It's worked really well ....







Wildlife pond creation clearing stones and creating different depths
We had to excavate soil from the site and re-landscape to create a pond with varying depths and sides with differing gradients.

It was great fun picking out all the stones that were larger than 1cm in diameter - not!


Laying the bentonite liner in a wildlife pondBentonite is a special clay that expands on contact with water, forming a very effective lining.  It was used in 10m2 strips which were sandwiched between geotextile to prevent holing.  Soil was laid over the liner to a depth of around 300mm for re-vegetation.





Creating a wildlife pond with bentonite liner in Chepstow
There have been many advantages to creating this pond including: creation of a wildlife-friendly area; a good strong liner, resistant to holing and good at holding water; an extremely attractive edition to the site.








On small ponds, avoid agressive,clump-forming emergents such as reeds, typha and greater pond sedge as these can take over the site.

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