Pre-formed ponds

Evening all.

Has anyone got any experience or opinions about preformed ponds, such as these?:

http://www.watergardeningdirect.com/acatalog/Pre_Formed_Ponds.html

I'm thinking of making a pond, but when I read about the process of fitting these preformed ones, it seems to me that its almost exactly the same as the process of building a pond with pond liner.

What do we think?

 

The process is actually "slightly" different ... a pond liner gives you fudge room

Your primary thoughts should revolve around:-

~ cost
~ life time
~ size
~ depth

I know a little while back you were considering the prospect of moving in the next few years, so let that be your first guide.

My first water feature was a small pre-formed pebble fountain (I still have it, it is now housed in a large flower tub in my secret garden with a solar pump). Digging it in was no problem, but making it level was a PITA. Having said that, I now know how it *should* be done

When I moved here I had to renovate a pond with a butyl pond liner. Ok, so it was already dug etc, but it needed re-lining because the actual leak couldn't be determined for patching. Bit pricey, but very straight forward.

Do you want a fish pond, wildlife pond, or just for plants?

 

That thought evaporated the moment I saw my son and the little boy over the road playing together. They are best mates. My wife had told me this (she has become best mates with the little boy's mum) but it was only when I saw it for myself I realised that my son and this other lad are proper mates, and furthermore, they are mates with a range of other kids that they've got to know from school.

Then yesterday, as it was approaching time to set off to take the lad to the party he'd been invited to down the road, I went to go and wife said no wait, my mate's calling for us on the way. I thought I'd potter out the front, and as the little boy and his mum appeared in view, the little boy ran straight into the house, my son saw him, and without a word, the pair of them ran to my son's train set pieces box and started building a track. We all went down to the club where the party was, and everyone was welcoming, and our son knew most of the kids and many of the grown-ups knew my wife and son, and I just realised, we're now ingrained here. It would be rotten of me to impose a move now, and it wouldn't do any of us any good, so we're staying put.

 

I Personally like Them But Some One with Expreance would be better to Advise you
Last Year I Bought 2 off a Guy Yet to Get Around to Fitting Them One Was Just over 6ft and the Other Was Just over 4 n Half Foot

I Bid on One on ebay for £9.99 and No One Else Bid When I Went to Collect it The Bloke Said I Have Got Another One the Same Price if you would be Interested??

I Asked the Guy Why He Was Selling Them?? and Why Was they So Cheep??

He Said I Have Sold My House to a Couple With Twin Boys And they Will Only Buy the House on the Condition I Remove Both the Ponds

The Garden Was out this World All land Scaped He Had Water Falls Water Features Interlocking Stones For All Around these Pools and Was Selling Everything off Cheap as chips because was Moving So for £19.98p I Got Both

I Am Going to Put One at the Side of My Folly With a Water Wheel Running in to it and May Be Run a Fauxed Stream in to the Other One Yet just Dreamy Ideas I Keep Getting

 

These preformed ponds always strike me as very expensive. EPDM (rubber) liner + quality underlay (Polyfelt) works out at about £6 per sq m - much less than these - and you can make the pond whatever size/shape you want.

The preformed ones are also very small and tend to be both steep-sided and deep for their size. That's fine if you just want goldfish and/or water lilies, but for more interesting wildlife a wider, shallower pond is better. Did I post these links before?:
How to make a really good wildlife pond
Creating Garden Ponds for Wildlife (pdf guide)

I'm currently making another pond in the garden, which should end up about 15-20 sq m. The advantage of the flexible liners is that I can dig the hole first, make design changes as I go along, then order the correct sized liner once it's ready. It's quite a lot of digging, although seeing as the pond will be pretty shallow not as much as it might sound. The main time will be in getting the edges exactly level, and in deciding exactly how the profile should vary across the pond to get a good range of depths.

 

we have a preformed pond. we only got it because we thought we had a leak in our pond liner. turns out the filter box was leaking!

We've had our preformed pond for probably 10 years & we've had to reseat it again, cos it tipped. Like mum said, theres more fudge room with a liner & I wish we'd still got one. Thing is, all the baby frogs go down the sides of our pond and dig away at the sand, so the pond can slip. Plus we have the problem of a sloping garden. If I had my way, I'd have a cement one so I could empty it out and scrub it every year.

But having said that, if you don't sink it and have it standing on level ground with wooden beams or something to support it, I cant forsee a problem with that