future Googlers: seaming liners

On Wed, 18 Aug 2004 01:34:00 GMT, "Mike Miller"
wrote:

I recently finished expanding my pond by partially draining it, digging a
new hole, lifting the liner partially out and seaming a new piece of liner
to the old one. I made many mistakes, but finally did it right. I only
needed to seam a 4' section, so I didn't buy a whole kit (which would have,
perhaps, had complete instructions, though I did research what to do.

But not well enough. So, for any future ponder wanting to do the same, and
Googling rec.ponds "seaming liner" or whatever (as I did), here are my tips,
beyond what I found elsewhere on the web (note, I'm doing this b/c the first
try at seaming them together did not work!):

1) Clean the liners thoroughly. I found do use unleaded gasoline, don't
use unleaded gasoline, use seam prep, don't use seam prep. I did this: I
got all the gunk off the old one and the powder off the new one with soap
and water. Then I cleaned them with mineral spirits over and over until
they were clean. Then, not sure if there would be any residue, cleaned with
soap again, then plain water.

2) Let the seam prep dry absolutely thoroughly. The can said 10-15
minutes, but in 80F weather with little humidity, mine took 20 minutes.
And, when I had to redo it at 9:30 at night because the stupid first seaming
leaked, it took 45 minutes to dry, with a fan blowing on it. Rrr.

3) Seam prep weakens lap sealant. The residue of the s.p. should not touch
the l.s., and when you add the s.p. for the 2nd, single-sided 6" tape, do
not let it touch the l.s! When they did, even after 48 hours of curing, the
lap sealant just pulled apart.

4) This should have gone earlier, but make sure you're seaming the correct
sides together! My first attempt failed for who knows what multiple
reasons, but I did it upside down anyway, so the new, connected liners were
curved in a big "U".

5) Make sure that you roll each of the tape applications really, really
well on a flat surface. I actually did this by pulling up the liner and
placing the area to be seamed on a huge board, while the rest of the
original liner remained in place.

6) Do not add the final lap sealant around the 6" single-sided tape for 4
hours after it was laid down. I read this on the label of the l.s. after
I'd already done it (the first time). I'm guessing that the reason has
something to do with allowing the seam prep to evaporate first.

7) Be careful with the lap sealant (which is like a caulk). Get a good,
thin bead, and don't feather it like I did the first time, and don't add
thick globs, which take forever to dry. It actually says not to feather it
(oops, read that tube afterwards again).

8) The company I purchased from said to let it cure for 48 hours. My l.s.
was not dry then (80F degrees, moderate humidity, but in full sun). It
dried in 72 hours.

9) Finally, the seam is not as flexible as the liner, which makes sense,
but I didn't expect. If it ends up it a stress point, where you want it to
stretch to mold to a shape (say, over a ledge), it won't do that very well
and may stress the seam.

Good luck, future pond expanders; my work is done!



Google didn't carry your original post because you put a binary in a
text group.

Cam