Ever since Mr. Wittstock of Aquascape began maligning reinforced concrete pond construction 15 years ago and began promoting his get-rich-quick rubber roof-liner ponds, the liner industry exploded. However, “What goes up, must come down!” The “pond liner” industry explosion is now beginning to implode. The great attraction of pond liners was, anyone can do it themselves… so the DIY pond liner kits were born, containing everything you need to build you your own beautiful backyard paradise. As a result, college grads and businessmen were swarming to join in on the new “Gold Rush,” with or without contractors licenses. Hundreds of experts began rising up in the ranks, boasting of their overnight fortunes gained by so little effort, and in as little as one day!

FLASH FORWARD — If it seems too good to be true, it probably is. It’s time to pay the piper.

The majority of these “Liner Disciples” were not exposing the potential risks involved as to the integrity of liner construction; they were too busy spouting the false doctrines about concrete constructs as taught to them by their “Liner Messiah.” It was a mantra: “Concrete will eventually crack and leak, it will poison the fish, you can’t be creative with concrete because it is not flexible. ”

Even though none of that propaganda was true, they are not offering the client an alternative option to a rubber liner. They would always install a mechanical water level float so if there were any leaks, the filler would keep the water level up. However, this stop-gap was short lived, since the client would get suspicious when the cost of their water bill would surpass the house payment. The liner dude forgot to divulge the liner’s bad side, that it is subject to the flora and fauna: flora will puncture and fauna will gnaw and gnaw and gnaw. Did I mention Gnaw?

When the source of the exorbitant water bill is exposed and the liner dude is called, he has two choices only: ignore the call or bite the bullet. He needs to build the client another water feature since he has no clue where the gophers, rats, mice, moles, chipmunks, ground squirrels, ground hogs or hedge hogs have gnawed, or where the roots have penetrated or the rocks and boulders have stretched or punctured.

As expected, many do not respond to the client complaint of water loss and the need to find the leak. This client will be another possible candidate for the growing list of angry rubber liner pond owners.

This is actually a true story.

Because this story has been repeated over and over for more than twenty years, most realtors have become aware of the risks, maintenance costs and short life of rubber liner ponds. When a realtor sells a home sporting a liner pond and it develops a leak during the warranty period, the client expects the realtor to fix it and in most cases this can turn out to a very expensive fix. This does not have to happen very often before the realtor will begin refusing to list a house with a liner pond and will most likely ask the seller to remove it and fill in the hole. Rubber liner ponds have been proven to be a liability by both realtors and insurance companies and consequency depreciate property values. There does not seem to be an issue with concrete constructed ponds and water features, in fact they can add equity in the home and increase its desirability and curb appeal..  Liner Ponds vs. Reinforced Concrete Lined Ponds- No Contest!

For more info Google: “liners vs concrete”

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Douglas C Hoover; Master Pond & Waterfall Builder- Designed and built well over 2000 waterfalls & Ponds since 1982- Author of the best selling Professional Waterfall & Pond Construction Manual and producer of The Ultimate Training Course.
http://DesignAPond.com

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