>Repairs, Maintenance, Pest and Disease Control
Pond Maintenance
How to Cure Murky Water
Pest and Disease Control
Pest and Disease Control2
Other garden pond pests
If you are enough of a craftsman to build a water-lily pool, you probably have achieved a perfectly level structure. Sometimes, however, pools tilt, either because they were constructed to conform to the level of the surrounding ground instead of to the water level, or they have settled unevenly on part-soft, part-hard foundation. Water may be lapping at the brim at one end of such a pool, but be 6 to 8 inches below the brim at the other end.
THE TILTING POOL
There is nothing you can do to correct a pool that tilts. I have seen people try to build the rim higher here and there with bricks or concrete, but I have never seen anyone do it successfully. Tilting is not really as serious as you imagine. Just try to accept the situation as it is. By strategic placement of shallow-water and border plants, you can cover your mistake pretty well-even attractively.
SMALL LEAKS
Small leaks caused by hairlike cracks in the pool floor or walls can be annoying, but they also are not much of a problem. Frequently they pass unnoticed, for pools consistently lose a certain amount of water through evaporation. If you add water now and then to make up for evaporation, it may be weeks before you realize the pool is leaking.
Put off the repair of such cracks, if at all possible, until the pool has been drained for cleaning in spring. Thick, heavy clay, rubbed into the cracks, makes good temporary patching. Once you have drained the pool, the size of the cracks will dictate your procedure.
If the cracks are very fine, a coat or two of special pool paint, available from most dealers, will probably seal cracks nicely. Or you can cover them two or three times with a heavy coat of waterproof varnish or artificial resin, which most paint stores carry.
If the cracks are somewhat larger, and there are many of them, coat the interior of the pool to a thickness of 1/8 inch with a mixture of one part cement and three parts fine sand, adding just enough water to give the mixture the consistency of wet plaster. Apply with a trowel, and smooth with a wooden float. Be sure to cure the pool before you put plants or goldfish into it.
Some gardeners have done very well by thinning the above mixture and "painting" the pool surfaces with it, applying it with a broom. Give the pool two paintings. Again neutralize with the vinegar and water treatment as described in Chapter 4.
If there are only a few cracks to seal, your paint store probably will be able to provide a mastic or caulking compound which will seal them.
BIG CRACKS
If you have a large crack in the shell of your pool, you are in for trouble. Big cracks, which seldom occur in pools made of reinforced concrete, are caused by uneven settling of the pool shell or by ice pressure in winter. If cracks would get no larger, they would be repairable. But they do get larger. Once a major crack occurs, it usually continues to widen a bit with each passing season, making any patch in it worthless.
But you can try. Some do manage successfully to apply patches to such cracks, and you may be one of the lucky ones. Drain the pool, clean it out, and then chisel out the inside surfaces of the big crack to give your patching material something to bold on to. Prepare a half-and half mixture of sand and cement, making it just wet enough to be plastic and easily applied. Give the patch plenty of time to set before curing it, preparatory to refilling the pool.
But you can try. Some do manage successfully to apply patches to such cracks, and you may be one of the lucky ones. Drain the pool, clean it out, and then chisel out the inside surfaces of the big crack to give your patching material something to bold on to. Prepare a half-and half mixture of sand and cement, making it just wet enough to be plastic and easily applied. Give the patch plenty of time to set before curing it, preparatory to refilling the pool.