AN ODE TO DIGGING
A descision was made to leave the koi in the existing pond as long as possible and dig round the existing pond. Can I start by saying I am not a builder or bricklayer so please do not look too closely at the blockwork etc. The construction of the pool would be done in 8 stages.
1 digging and blockwork at rear and side of pool.
2 removal of exiting liner and removal of earth bank at rear of pool.
3 digging out existing pool to size of new pool
4 laying bottom drains
5 Blockwork at this end of pool
6 filter bay construction
7 installing filters pumps & UV's
8 installing underfelt and new liner
Digging started at the rear of the pool where there was an existing concrete path (behind red bridge)and all the soil was removed from the rear of the pool to this depth being shovelled out into barrow and spread across the existing flower beds and boarders around the garden.
When once the ground was all level with the path, a trench was dug for the foundations about 12" deep and 12" wide with its front edge level with what was going to be the inside edge of the blockwork. The trench was dug across the very rear and along the side by the summerhouse, and up to the existing pool. A timber 'shuttering was fitted at the front of both trenches and leveled up with a spirit level then fixed into position. As can be seen from the photo the ground under the concrete slab that the summerhouse sat on was a bit unstable so the soil was undercut and a supporting 'wall' was erected to support it but more of that later.
Concrete was mixed using a barrow, shovel and electric mixer, wheeled round to the position needed and shoveled out of the barrow and into the foundation and poured into the trench all round the corner foundation, then trouled level and left to cure for a few days. After the footings were cured time to lay some bricks and blocks Starting from the end of the existing pool wall up to three courses of bricks were layed. These had to be tapered from two courses to three due to the slope of the path. Upon completion the brickwork was left for two days to cure.
With this done I could start laying blockwork both across the rear of the pool and along the far edge as can be seen the side wall extended past the end of the pool and stepped down to form retaining wall for a stepped rockery. The blockwork was laid down to four courses
After the blockwork walls were complete, again they were left for several days to cure. After curing I started digging down again but this time I was just throwing the soil over the end wall to form the rockery. The purpose of the rockery was to give an earth mound which would support the end wall.
The soil in the rockery was tiered and each tier edged of with large stonework, (which I had a lot of in this garden). No sooner than the rockery was filled, and as can be seen from the last photo it still left loads of soil to be removed, a weed membrane was put down, rockery and alpines were planted, and then topped of with blue slate chippings.
After completing the rockery my attention was diverted to building some supporting pillar/walls between the new wall and the wall to the existing goldfish pond running down the other side of the concrete path. When these were completed, the gap between the walls was in filled with soil from the digging.
with the support walls completed and infilled, I proceeded to lay two courses of blockwork on top of the existing poool wall. With this done that was stage one completed.
Comments
Post a Comment