my Zen Water Garden and Koi Pond

[kien]

Originally Posted by FishyFishy!

I have a questions for you pond goers...

How important is the fabric underlay underneath the pond liner itself? I really don't want to buy one. lol.

That depends how smooth the dirt is going to be under your liner. I didn't use an underlay under mine either because like you, i was too cheap LOL. Instead, I made sure to get as many pointy rocks out as I could and laid down a significant layer of newspaper. I collected like 4 weeks worth of flyers from my house and my parents house. use duct tape to tape them together when you lay them down otherwise they will fly and shift all over the place! The newspaper was probably as thick as the underlay that you could buy and that cushioned the liner well. Also, I don't have any large trees with roots anywhere near my pond so I didn't have to worry about that, but if you do then you need to take those roots into consideration.

Mind you, I did look up what the underlay cost at Burnco just a few days ago and it's actually not that expensive there. for a 300sqft sheet that I would need I think it would only cost me like $60 ? That seems pretty cheap to me but honestly I think the thick layer of newspapers provided more cushioning.

With my reno I was going to do the same and lay down news papers/flyers again but this time I also have the added advantage of having my old pond liner that I will also use to lay down underneath the new liner.

Bottom line is, you should put something that you trust, in between the pond and the ground. You WILL need to walk inside the pond and you will probably lay down heavy pond plants/baskets, etc, so it's good to have that cushioning to prevent puncture.