A Step Back

As promised, John showed up today with another water feature designer. Like Todd, Kevin is the co-owner of a local company who has been doing water features for 20+ years. Unlike Todd's company, Kevin's company is BBB accredited with an A+ rating and glowing references.

John had explained the situation to Kevin and he immediately got into troubleshooting. He dug around the north and east perimeters and found the liner to be far too low (and poorly installed) to support the desired water level. He and John worked to get the liner on these two sides pulled up as best they could. When they got over to the liner around the skimmer, they found there was no way, without a major redo, to get the liner up to the level where we would like it. As Kevin so adroitly stated, "the train has already left the station". The best we can hope for is to get the level to stabilize at a point roughly at the level of the overflow port. Kevin agreed that it was important for any excess water to channel off through the overflow port to avoid long-term damage to the soil surrounding the pond.

We cut off the PVC elbow that Todd had put on the overflow port since there is no way we were going to be able to use it to adjust the level (the inadequacies of the liner made that impossible). When Kevin had finished, we filled the pond up to the point of overflow port and will monitor the level. We are expecting rain (a lot of rain) in the coming week. However, if the level holds for the next 24-48 hours, it will be a major accomplishment. We told Kevin that we want to get the pump reinstalled and running sometime this coming week. John said he was going to cut Todd loose and work with Kevin from here out. Kevin said he would be back probably on Tuesday.

Once we verify the pond level is stable, we will finish the landscaping around the perimeter.