Rock Work


Unloading the rocks.	This is one of the coping rocks that goes on the top edge of the pond. It's important to keep the size of the rocks equal to the scale of the project.	The biggest problem was the weight of the waterfall rocks. We managed to get them on and off the truck with nothing larger than the Kubota!	Here we're using the Kubota to flip the rock over. It will wait here until we are ready to put it in the falls. Now, back for the next load...


The complete stash - all the bluestone and rock for the project.	The liner and padding (in the box). The liner weighs over 400 pounds, and is made of truck innner-tube material.	The final check before putting the padding in place. The waterfall area will have double padding and double liner!	The padding is spread out. We used one large sheet. It is pretty light - until you get a whole pond of it!


The liner was stretched out over the padding, and once in place, it could be rolled back so that it wasn't stepped on. We have placed the foundation rock for the waterfall! The bottom of it will be in the water, and it hangs 6 inches out over the edge.	A much larger Kubota was rented for a few hours to move the waterfall rocks. The second rock is placed and then shimmed to be absolutely stable.	Waterfall rock #3.


The liner is pulled back as far as possible to help dry out yet another thunderstorm.	The top rock is placed on the waterfall, and then we started placing the large coping rocks. You can just see the main bio-filter at the top of the upper rock. Water goes into the bottom of the filter, percolates up through the filter media and spills out the top over the waterfall.	Next, we peeled the excess liner and padding back so we could put the skimmer in place.	The skimmer houses the 2 main pumps, which suck the pond water in through a leaf strainer and some filtration matting and push it up to the bottom of the bio-filters. There are two bio-filters, each fed by a separate pump. This effectively filters twice the volume of the pond per hour.


Our Kubota had no trouble handling the rock for the sides of the waterfall. They were moved into place next.	We're fixing the final supports for the main bio-filter. The second filter sits behind this one, and dumps into it.	The next step was to double pad and double line the base for the stepping stones.	All the large rocks are in place. Now, to make the pond look more natural, we had to add fill in with smaller rocks around the pond edge.


	Meanwhile, we worked on the liner at the patio edge. The water line was to be only 1-2 inches below the bluestone patio, so we had to be extra careful that the liner would keep any overflow in the pond..	Here you can see the rock wall which surrounds the bio-filters being constructed. Ferns would be planted at the base of the rock, and at the top to blend it into the woodsy surroundings.	An excellent view of the sides of the waterfall, as well as some of the coping rocks.

Unloading the rocks.

This is one of the coping rocks that goes on the top edge of the pond. It's important to keep the size of the rocks equal to the scale of the project.

The biggest problem was the weight of the waterfall rocks. We managed to get them on and off the truck with nothing larger than the Kubota!

Here we're using the Kubota to flip the rock over. It will wait here until we are ready to put it in the falls. Now, back for the next load...

The complete stash - all the bluestone and rock for the project.

The liner and padding (in the box). The liner weighs over 400 pounds, and is made of truck innner-tube material.

The final check before putting the padding in place. The waterfall area will have double padding and double liner!

The padding is spread out. We used one large sheet. It is pretty light - until you get a whole pond of it!

The liner was stretched out over the padding, and once in place, it could be rolled back so that it wasn't stepped on. We have placed the foundation rock for the waterfall! The bottom of it will be in the water, and it hangs 6 inches out over the edge.

A much larger Kubota was rented for a few hours to move the waterfall rocks. The second rock is placed and then shimmed to be absolutely stable.

Waterfall rock #3.

The liner is pulled back as far as possible to help dry out yet another thunderstorm.

The top rock is placed on the waterfall, and then we started placing the large coping rocks. You can just see the main bio-filter at the top of the upper rock. Water goes into the bottom of the filter, percolates up through the filter media and spills out the top over the waterfall.

Next, we peeled the excess liner and padding back so we could put the skimmer in place.

The skimmer houses the 2 main pumps, which suck the pond water in through a leaf strainer and some filtration matting and push it up to the bottom of the bio-filters. There are two bio-filters, each fed by a separate pump. This effectively filters twice the volume of the pond per hour.

Our Kubota had no trouble handling the rock for the sides of the waterfall. They were moved into place next.

We're fixing the final supports for the main bio-filter. The second filter sits behind this one, and dumps into it.

The next step was to double pad and double line the base for the stepping stones.

All the large rocks are in place. Now, to make the pond look more natural, we had to add fill in with smaller rocks around the pond edge.

Meanwhile, we worked on the liner at the patio edge. The water line was to be only 1-2 inches below the bluestone patio, so we had to be extra careful that the liner would keep any overflow in the pond..

Here you can see the rock wall which surrounds the bio-filters being constructed. Ferns would be planted at the base of the rock, and at the top to blend it into the woodsy surroundings.

An excellent view of the sides of the waterfall, as well as some of the coping rocks.