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Step 6: |
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Hints |
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| <<<GO BACK TO PAGE 2 OF INSTALL A BOTTOM DRAIN |
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GO TO STEP 7:
SET THE LINER>>> |
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Install a Bottom Drain |
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Page 3 of 3 |
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Select a drill bit that is slightly smaller in diameter than the screws provided. Now comes the tricky part. In most cases, your drill bit is going to be longer than the space between the lip of the basin and the bottom of the basin itself. Take your finger and slide it under the lip of the bottom drain basin and feel how far it is to the basin itself. We DO NOT want to drill through the basin, so be very careful with your drill! Set the "O" ring on top of the liner and line it up carefully with the inside edge of the drain basin beneath. The top of the "O" ring will have little indentations where the holes are to be drilled to set your screws. You can stand or kneal on the "O" ring to keep it in place while you're drilling and setting the screws. Start by first drilling a hole in the "O" ring where it is marked with an indentation, and down through the lip of the bottom drain basin, making sure to NOT drill through the basin itself. Screw it down by hand on opposite sides, first drilling, then setting the screw in each hole as you go as shown, all the way around the "O" ring. |
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People (men) often ask me why I don't use a drill with a Philips-head bit in it to tighten down the screws. The reason is that you are drilling through and setting screws in plastic, and a drill with a Philips-head bit would easily strip out the hole and make the screw next to useless. Tightening the screws down by hand is a little more work, but it's the right way to do it. |
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Once all the screws are installed, carefully cut the excess liner away from the inside of the drain opening with a sharp utility knife and remove any excess silicone. Never cut the liner with your hand behind it for support.
If there's any dirt or shavings from the drill bit in the basin, scoop them out and slide the nub of the bottom drain lid onto the support tube. If the nub is too big for the support tube, take the tube out and cut an "X" across the top at the end of the tube with a hacksaw, down about an inch. This will give you enough play to get the nub into the support tube while still maintaining the tube's integrity. This bottom drain is very sturdy, and you can stand on the lid once it's on the support tube without hurting anything. |
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| The silicone will need very little time to set up enough for you to start filling your pond, so take a bit of time to get any folds out of the bottom of the pond liner and then go grab the garden hose. The bottom basin will fill up first, then the water will creep out across the liner. Water is very heavy (8 pounds per gallon), so if you have any nasty folds on the bottom of the pond, now is the time to get them out. Once you have more than 2" of water on the liner, it will be too heavy to move. Only fill your pond to the first plant shelf, or if you have a REALLY deep pond with no plant shelves, fill it with about a foot of water or up to a level that you have marked. Then go get yourself something cold to drink and sit down and relax for a while! Let the pond sit overnight to |
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| make sure the seal on the bottom drain is good. If you wake up the next morning, and the pond is empty, you have a leak in the bottom drain. There are tricks to finding leaks in ponds, and the first trick of the trade is to eliminate the possibilities of where the leak is. Every time you cut a hole in your liner or fire up a pump, fill 'er up and let your pond set overnight. If the bottom drain is sealed correctly, we can move on to setting the liner and skimmer box. If not, we need to re-do it before we move on, but at least we know where the leak is! |
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| <<<GO BACK TO PAGE 2 OF INSTALL A BOTTOM DRAIN |
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GO TO STEP 7:
SET THE LINER>>> |
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Write me at: pondgal@gridcom.net |
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