My backyard overhaul journal

[Bblinks]

Originally Posted by Dez

Unfortunately, this may not be what you want to hear - my wife and I have agreed to keep the cost of this project to ourselves. It was pricey, but well worth it to us. However, I saved a ton by doing everything that I could by myself. I pretty much hacked away at it every chance I had by myself, with my wife helping when she could. Made several trips to places to get gravel, lumber, stones, sand, soil, plants, to the dump etc. With the pond company we received several gift certificates for our 10 year anniversary last summer and we will be using those gift certificates toward the pond itself. The only labour we paid out was for the pond company and a couple of teenagers here and there to help dig/weed etc (mainly it was to help those teenagers out during the summer to raise money for certain causes.

Thanks for the reply Dez. I understand if you don't want to disclose the total cost of build. I just want to get a reference on how much it would run me, but I guess it wouldn't really matter unless if I factor in the labor. Never the less it is awesome. Keep us posted. The pond is bad ass.

[Eduardo]

The wife says the backyard looks like a picture out of a home design magazine. Nice job.

[phi delt reefer]

u got shots of the "mechanical" stuff for us equipment junkies ?

[Blom]

Nice touch with the glass in the bridge!

[kien]

Ya that glass is a brilliant idea love it! I may try to adopt that for my pond next year :-)

[StirCrazy]

hey Des, looks amazing so far, I have been trying to figure out what to do with my back yard as we have 1/2 an acre with a few fruit trees and the rest is grass. I was thinking a waterfall that turns into a river and a smaller pond area then you have. this gives me some ideas how things look in a befor /after perspective.

one question though, are you sure 1/2" glass is going to be strong enough for the size of holes you left there? what if some one fat comes to visit and see the oaisis you have created like me most of the walking panes I have seen are more like 1" thick.

somthing that big you could almost stock it with rainbow trout and go fishing haha

Steve

[Ross]

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

one question though, are you sure 1/2" glass is going to be strong enough for the size of holes you left there? what if some one fat comes to visit and see the oaisis you have created like me most of the walking panes I have seen are more like 1" thick.

somthing that big you could almost stock it with rainbow trout and go fishing haha

Steve

I'd be about someone with a piece of sand or a pebble in thier shoes taking out a pannel rather than big bertha.

In industrial applications they use tempered laminated glass. That way, if the top layer shatters, you wont fall through.

[Dez]

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

hey Des, looks amazing so far, I have been trying to figure out what to do with my back yard as we have 1/2 an acre with a few fruit trees and the rest is grass. I was thinking a waterfall that turns into a river and a smaller pond area then you have. this gives me some ideas how things look in a befor /after perspective.

one question though, are you sure 1/2" glass is going to be strong enough for the size of holes you left there? what if some one fat comes to visit and see the oaisis you have created like me most of the walking panes I have seen are more like 1" thick.

somthing that big you could almost stock it with rainbow trout and go fishing haha

Steve

There is a glass company that rents some warehouse space I have. They said that for that size, 6mm tempered will do. There are pictures of a person standing on a 48" x 48" piece of 6mm tempered only supported from 2 edges in one of his glass magazines. So we went double the thickness and tempered. It's only 11" wide so I'm not too concerned. I looked into what Mindy suggessted (rock guard 3M stuff), but that stuff is more expensive than my glass, so I'll just replace it every couple of years. The glass is costing me less than $200 for all 4 sheets, so quite reasonable.

[Dez]

Originally Posted by kien

Ya that glass is a brilliant idea love it! I may try to adopt that for my pond next year :-)

Believe it or not, it was a spontaneous idea I had while framing the deck and then I prompty called my glass guy to check on cost/strength (of course after consulting my wife for the OK)

[Dez]

Originally Posted by phi delt reefer

u got shots of the "mechanical" stuff for us equipment junkies ?

Will probably come after the weekend. I am going Scuba diving this weekend so I won't be around and it's dark now already.