Table of contents:
- The advantages of capital reservoirs
- Reinforced concrete reservoir design
- Construction works
- Filling the pond with water
Video: A Pond On Your Site. How To Make A Pond In The Country? How To Build. Photo
2024 Author: Ava Durham | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 00:23
In organizing an artificial reservoir on your site, you can get by with very low costs. For example, if you have swampy or just waterlogged lands, and the reservoir will be well replenished with groundwater, the bottom and walls need not be revetted. True, the water level in such a reservoir is unstable, since it depends on the amount of moisture in the soil, but it is still possible to grow unpretentious fish in it - crucian carp, tench. In this article, we will try to figure out how to create a capital reinforced concrete reservoir on the site.
Content:
- The advantages of capital reservoirs
- Reinforced concrete reservoir design
- Construction works
- Filling the pond with water
The advantages of capital reservoirs
Clay and film ponds are much cheaper than reinforced concrete. And it's easy to build them. One thing is bad - they are quite easily damaged and are not always convenient to use.
Capital reservoirs - concrete and reinforced concrete - are not cheap, but reliable. In addition, they do not require special care, they hold water well, and the banks do not slip.
When using concrete, it is not difficult to give the reservoir any profile, to arrange depressions and shoals, underwater steps - terraces for shallow plants. If necessary, such ponds can be easily insulated for the winter.
Reinforced concrete reservoir design
Place for a reservoir
What place to take under the reservoir on the site? If we consider that even a mini-pond (well-groomed, of course) has aesthetic value, then it should be located in a recreation area, not far from a residential building, among flower beds. It is only important that it is not completely shaded by trees and buildings.
The shape of the reservoir
Along the profile, a reservoir can be made with banks high or almost sunk into the ground. It is convenient to discharge water from a pond with high banks through a drain hole. Even an ordinary bathtub can become such a mini-reservoir.
However, reservoirs with sunken banks are more practical, look prettier, and more convenient for growing aquatic plants and fish. The side walls of such reservoirs are only 10-15 cm above ground level. So that the pond does not look like a simple ditch or pit, it is better to make its outlines round, oval or curved.
Strict geometric shapes are suitable for a garden with a regular layout, when straight lines prevail in the plan of the site. Curved ponds are recommended in so-called creative gardens with a free layout close to natural. Here you can show the richest imagination.
The depth of the reservoir
The depth of the reservoir depends on its main purpose. For fish farming in the middle zone of the country, it should be 1-1.5 m, in the south - up to 2 m. In the pond, shallow areas with a depth of 0.3-0.5 m are desirable. Here the bottom warms up better, and conditions for breeding are created natural food for fish - phyto and zooplankton, daphnia, bloodworms.
If a stream flows through the site, then it can be used for the device of a flowing reservoir and the successful cultivation of fish of a wide variety of breeds in it. If it is supposed to leave the fish for the winter, then you need to arrange special devices - wintering wells or pits. True, one must bear in mind that it is quite difficult to deal with winter fish death from lack of oxygen in the water.
Since the reservoir on the site is used in a complex manner, including for growing aquatic plants, it is more practical to make its bottom with a slope, with depressions for plant soil, and the banks-slopes with concrete steps - terraces.
The steps are arranged with a width of 30-40 cm for planting shallow plants in small containers. The depth above the first step is 20-30 cm. It is convenient to go down the steps into the reservoir during its repair, cleaning, catching fish. They do not have to be done along the entire perimeter of the reservoir.
Vegetable soil can be placed on such a terrace instead of containers. To prevent the soil from crumbling to the bottom of the reservoir, a concrete or stone side 12-15 cm high is made along the edge of the step.
Construction works
After the pit has been opened, its bottom and walls are carefully tamped. A sand cushion is poured under the future concrete bottom of the reservoir. A layer of crushed stone or slag is rammed into the sand from above.
Reinforcement of concrete
When constructing reservoirs with an area of more than 7-10 m2, it is recommended to use concrete reinforcement with steel mesh. For this, wire is suitable - wire rod. It is cut into rods of the required length, depending on the size of the bottom and walls of the pool, and laid crosswise with a side of a square cell of 20-25 cm. In places where the overlaps are placed, the rods are tied together with soft wire.
The reinforcement is laid so that it is in the thickness of the concrete structures. For this, small stones are placed under the rods on the crushed stone of the bottom, or they are fixed on steel brackets stuck into the soil of the side slopes or into the timber of the formwork.
Installing a water pipe
To replenish the pond with water, simultaneously with the reinforcement, a water supply pipe is laid from a water supply system or other source of water. It is advisable to use rainwater runoff from the roof of buildings for the same purpose. Water intake can be adjusted by arranging a small waterfall, water cascade or mini-stream. This makes the reservoir picturesque and natural.
Installation of drainage pipes
During the reinforcement, drain pipes are also installed - drain or overflow. The drain pipe is mounted if there is a drainage ditch, ditch, stream nearby. In this case, the drain hole is placed at the bottom of the reservoir or at the bottom of the side wall of the slope.
If there is nowhere to drain the water, it is pumped out and used for irrigation. The overflow pipe is set at the desired constant water level. Excess water flows through it either into a drain pipe or into a special water-absorbing pit. For this purpose, a barrel without a bottom dug into the ground is very convenient. An interesting option is also to overflow water into a water-folding pit.
After the completion of the installation work, they begin to fill the bottom of the pond with concrete. Its composition by weight is approximately the following: cement - 1 part, washed coarse sand - 2 parts, crushed stone - 3 parts. It is best to use cement grade 400 or higher. In the absence of gravel, a cement-sand mortar is used in a weight ratio of 1: 3-4. The most important thing is the water resistance of the pond, so the laid concrete mixture needs to be tamped at least a little.
The construction of the walls of the reservoir
After the concrete of the bottom hardens, they begin to erect the walls. It is better to do them with some slope from the center of the reservoir. Concreted in wooden formwork. If curved banks are conceived, flexible plywood formwork is used.
The thickness of the concrete layer of the walls of the reservoir, as well as of the bottom, is 12-15 cm. The formwork is removed when the concrete hardens enough. For greater waterproofness on dried concrete, after the formwork is removed, sometimes waterproofing is placed from one or two layers of roofing material or roofing tar on bituminous mastic, followed by protective concreting.
With good quality concrete and its thickness of 16-20 cm, you can do without waterproofing. Freshly laid concrete must be protected from excessive drying out and, especially, from direct sunlight for 3-4 days, therefore, the walls and bottom are covered with damp rags, mowed grass, shields.
Decorative finishing of the walls-banks of the pond
In the decorative finishing of concrete walls-banks, a wide variety of techniques are used, including tiling. Cobblestones and small boulders look good on the concrete sides of the reservoir.
Filling the pond with water
It is recommended to fill the pond with water no earlier than 10-14 days after the end of concreting, when the concrete has sufficiently hardened. First, the reservoir is washed, filling the concrete bowl to the top with water. After 2-3 days, this water is drained and only after that sand, vegetable soil are brought to the bottom and terrace steps, aquatic plants are planted and finally filled with water.
After 2-3 days, you can stock the finished reservoir. It is advisable to drain water from the pond in autumn for repairs, catching fish, cleaning the bottom, cleaning plants. In addition, without water, concrete structures can withstand winter frosts more easily. In order to avoid winter death, if special measures are not provided for providing it with oxygen, it is better to move the fish to wintering facilities.
Author: A. Moiseev
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