Price price price... One bag of 25kg plaster around RM9 to RM11. There fine one costs more and rougher type costs less. For plastering mud go for cheap rough one, you are not going to see the player surface after it has been concreted, right?

Continue from part one...

Ok, ok, there is no part one or part 2, just to make thing easy to understand.

The burger thing. Now you can choose to have the brick to be a part of the wall or you can tear it down as concrete cured.

Having it be part of the concrete wall making the wall very thick but that does not make the wall any stronger and/or durable than the reinforced concrete. Thicker wall means losing space too. (Note: reinforced concrete means concrete with rebars/bone inside, stronger and harder to break.)

Like wooden formwork, you can choose to tear down the brick after the concrete is set. (Of course the used bricks will have no use or commercial value as it is stuck with cement/concrete. The purpose is not to save money for reuse but for nicer looking and space).

You have to decide before you build the brick formwork. because you have to add a layer of thin plywood behind the brick formwork so that concrte will not stick on to the bricks. Without a layer preventing concrete from joining the brick formwork you can never remove the brick without breaking the concrete. It stuck together like one whole piece.

Price, price, price, money money money.... thin ply wood is cheap, it does not cost you a bomb compared to the thicker plywood.

Do not use newspaper or cardboard or plastic sheet instead of the thin plywood. Paper will "dissolve" as you pour concrete. Plastic sheet will drop off or out of place if you are not careful and it will be hell to dig out the wet concrete and re-position the plastic sheet.

I do not know about oiling it. It is the practice to use oil for steel mould. But for bricks??? The bricks will suck up the oil and still the concrete gets stuck to the brick??? I am not sure, you may want to experiment is first before your actual work. It will be a better and cheaper solution than ply wood if this works. Anyone try that before?

You see this picture. If you have a concrete sprayer you need not plaster the mud/soil wall

Sorry I think I have confused you. because the discussion has not been in proper sequence. The correct order or sequence is you concrete the base first before the wall so that the wall sit on the base.

Likewise, before you concrete the base, it is advisable to have a layer of thin concrete covering the mud floor. No need to use plaster, the 25kg bag plaster. Use sand and cement mix will do for the covering of the floor.

Think better discuss from correct order starting with identify the site, the shape and design of the pond first....

This post has been edited by stevie8: Aug 27 2013, 05:38 PM

let me list down what are the things you should consider its topics

1. The site. Choose where and how big the pond you want and you can have

2. Design. Rectangular or curvy. Straight flow is the latest water flow design where water flow from one end to another, not the conventional bottom drains at the middle. Water fall, fountain and your imagination.

3. Traditional up and down filter chambers or bead filter and sieve

4. Electrical and piping requirements. How to pull cable and type of cable and pipe. considering additional earth leakage (ELCB).

5. Digging. how to dig and where to dig. House footing care.

6. Concrete pond construction. Brick wall or concrete wall. Types of concrete mix, waterproofing.

7. Equipment: pump size, power consumption consideration and UV

8. Right tools and equipment needed.

Yes, that is hell lot of work, worst than digging.

This post has been edited by stevie8: Aug 27 2013, 10:12 PM

It is easier to use brick method for curve pond, so is my curve pond using bricks backfilled with concrete.

This is a diagram of a brick wall with backfilled concrete. The backfilled acts as support for the brickwall and therefore compacting is not utmost important. Also, you can back fill as you lay the bricks than pouring the backfilled concrete after completion of building the brick wall.



As you know brick is rectangular, long and edges. Laying the bricks as it is give the surface has too rough edges, impossible to be smooth out during plastering. To have a smoother curve cut the brick into two using a circular concrete saw. You will now have shorter bricks which give you smoother curve and making plastering easy. You need only to cut a line on one face and use hammer to break them into two. I lined up the bricks on the ground some 10 to 20 pieces at a time and cut all of them at one go. That is cut a roll of bricks at once than cutting one by one which is time consuming.

No removing the bricks, left the bricks there and plastered it then waterproof it with Sika top.

Hahaha... there is no joke, seriously I DIY the whole thing all by myself the first time. the landscaping will not chap lup cause got people like you ma.

Also, there are people who can afford but will not spend or spend less, that is one of the ways how to accumulating money. It is not called stingy but more appropriate to be called spend wisely. A dollar spent is a dollar gone forever. A dollar saved is another dollar gain in 10 years, double your money in investment/savings.

Stingy means buy cheap things that dont last or got no class and then have to buy again using low quality things for life. Wise spending for example is buy good quality things that last and when broken get it repaired or DIY repairing yourself. Of course not all things are like that. Example cars cannot last whether cheap or expensive. Things like shoes yes, can last 3 to 4 times longer but need repair and care as time pass to last even longer each time you get it repaired. Yes, take care of your shoes! Dont walk on muddy wet places, use the right shoes for the right activities, care and repair when see sign of wear, not wait till totally broke off.

But as far as I am concerned it is all because I like to DIY and happiness is when you see your "project" completed and enjoy. Money of course being considered. Why pay 10 times more when you can DIY and save the money for other priorities and investment. There are other priorities like holidays vacation, buying big tv, having new hod and hop, etc. Having a pond is no saving, there are cost attached to it like electric bill minimum RM80 a month, maintenance of the pond, fish food, feeding and caring for the pond, etc. If you don't have a pond you need not spend these monies but life has no much meaning when you cannot get what you dream to have in your life and you live only once and that is not more than 100 years.

I am a diyer and see I also diy my pergola for the first time, thing I never did before, click below link, yet another money saved!

https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/2641338

This post has been edited by stevie8: Sep 30 2013, 12:10 PM

That deck rotten already after a year. It was some broken furniture wood picked from street something like a shelf Ikea type. Think it was for indoor use. And now the new deck seems to last even without paint. This new deck wood was also picked from the street. It was a beach chair someone throw and left in on the side of the road for months and I picked it up put in my car and drove home. It was a chair like the picture below and as expected it last can take sun and rain. Sometimes you just get something for free. Actually you can make money out of rubbish, already there are ppl became super rich from rubbish! The world richest self made woman Zhang Yin of China is a recycle tycoon, buy scrap paper from US and sell in China. A man's waste is another woman's wealth! Think before you throw...



ZhangYin


This post has been edited by stevie8: Oct 2 2013, 02:22 PM

You don't get soil by lorry load. You get mud. By soil I mean humus.

Hi Sorry did not read earlier.

turfing or grass this is what you should do, the easy and cheapest way.

1. You should dig up to 2 feet, if not 2 1/2 feet. Level the ground using a spirit level.

2. Go buy mud (soil), the yellow colour type plentiful and cheap by lorry load fill up the dug areas to 2 feet and 2-3 inches thick (The soil subside with time as there are many air-pockets in between and it will sink). Try level it using long piece of spirit level. Cant find a long one, use a plank/ straight wood 1x2x6 and stick the spirit level on top of the wood. When filling the mud never compact it, just fill and level on the dry. Break the big pieces into smaller with digging tools.

3. Leave it alone let it settle, wait for heavy rain. Real heavy rain for once or two times. The rain not only level out the soil but also even out the compactness of the soil underneath.

3. Then go hardware shop buy sand as topsoil for 4 to 6 inches thick, not just any sand. Buy river sands, the yellow and orange type.

Let me explain this:

1. For plant and grass to grow well you need a layer of mud to hold water all the time rain or shinee.
2. The yellow mud contains little or no wild plant seeds. If you buy humus or old top soil you will get unwanted wild plant spices and out grow your grass and hell lot of work later pulling them up everyday as the wild seeds start to grow.
3. Likewise the sands contain little wild plant seeds. Most grass or plant die when it is submerged in water for too long and the exposed part will rot. The sands will drain away excessive water. That is why you must level the mud and sand ground so as to avoid having pool of water.
4. The mud absorbs water and expands as it is saturated and became impermeable, that is why you must have a layer of sand.
5. The yellow mud and yellow river sands not only void of wild seed but also nutrient, no humus. What needs to do is add fertilizer and overcome this issue.
6. Please note that unlike when you filling the area with mud a bit higher because it will sink, the sand will not compact further or sink but leveling it out when heavy rain.
7. The sand also allows faster spread of the grass and not to worry that the root of the grass have to grow deep to find the water source reaching to the 4-6 inches getting to the mud. A healthy grass can reach it within a day!
8. Please also note that the looser the top layer of "soil" the faster the plant spread and taller it grows. When ground is hard the grass is short and soft it grows taller than usual.

In summary:

Mud, to hold water. Not too thick so as to allow excessive water to move down via capillary action. 2 feet thick will hold lot of water. if too thin if you forgot to water the grass and no rain your grass turn yellow in less than a month.

Sands, allow grass to spread and drain excessive water. Too thin you may have pool of water after heavy rain, too thick your grass grow too tall and you need frequent trimming.

This post has been edited by stevie8: Oct 6 2013, 05:03 PM

The package one is for pot, flower pot. If there are wild seed, no problem to manage a small pot.

Also when you have big pot, it is good to have a layer of few inches of the yellow soil at the bottom with 2 purposes. When you water the plant water will not just flow right out of the bottom of the pot, instead it flow slowly and this layer will absorb and hold water for a long time, means no need to water everyday or every other day. Once a week will do.

This is specially written for Kipkip situation. He needs 2 feet since the original ground is full of contraction waste, broken tiles, stones and and waste cement.

But if your ground is clay or mud then you can skip adding the yellow mud altogether. Let me give you some examples fruit tree planting and growing vegetable.

For fruit tree or any other trees the advice is too dig 4 feet deep and 4x4 feet wide. Why? It is just like a flower pot except it is a big pot. The root of the tree has to go deep and the 4x4x4 "pot" will hold enough water(moisture) for the tree and for the root to grow well there especially when it is young. If you have rocks under the tree and lot of stones the root will not hold and not enough water for bearing fruit. Also the original ground is so hard the root cannot grow deep down and expand bigger. With 4 feet deep the root of tree have reach the water source all year round. When your fruit tree is not bearing fruits it could be you did not dig big enough hole.

Vegetable. Have you been to one of the farms? They make rolls of small hill and the veg grow on top of the hill. They do not plant veg on flat ground. Plants/veg need air in the soil and plenty of soil for root to grow well and the hill just provide both of that plus water will be drained from the hill but at the same time veg need lots of water to grow so the valley and the soil of hills provide enough water needed.

Grass, Sands is needed for draining and for grass to spread. Go to any golf club, at their fairway dig and you find sands.

I am not sure what's went wrong with it. But there are things you have to do for newly planted grass:

1. water daily especially in the morning and evening. Not noon as evaporation will remove most water out of it.

2. Too much fertilizer kills the grass! To know if you use too much or too little, try fertilized a portion of it and see if this part is growing better than the rest. Also, heavy rain washes away the fertilizer! When there are too much fertilizer it will "burn" the grass and turn yellowish. Moist or water the grass first before fertilizer and make sure is well spread and then water a little more so that the fertilizer get into the ground than on top of the grass leaves.

3. Planting. first you wet the ground, flood it real wet but do not disturb the sand, then put the new grass on top press it down. That is the way to do and do not water till next day. This is the way to plant new grass. When water be very careful not to hose it, use shower lightly. Hosing it is a mistake. By doing so you wash away the mud/soil of the grass root down to the sands. When the root hold no soil it get sick and die! That is why you must water it with light shower. By pressing it down to the sand is to make sure there is not too much void or big air pocket and good contact between the newly plant grass root and the sands.

It is a RM20k question, do you know. To construct a pond like this cost RM20K and you want to destroy it?

Why not first get it function and decide later if you want to keep it?

First, empty the pond and filter chambers, clean all the filter one chamber at a time, take photo before you take out the filter so that you know how to arrange it back in its original order.

Put back the filter material, fill water and run the pump, if the pump is still working. Throw in some gold fish and/or cheap koi.

It's up to you lor. Not your cup of tea but if you build it costs more than RM15 to RM25k depend on size. the filter chamber is too big occupied space.

You can have 2 inches of sands provided the clay/mud/soil is level. Leveling is very important. If the clay ground is not level some area will not have sands at all as rain will wash away the high ground to the low ground. That's is why i recommend 4 to 6 inches for very large piece of land area.

The job of the sands is to level the ground so it look nice and perfect, it also for draining so that you do not have dead grass at the low spots. It is to allow aeration. Carbon dioxide need to be remove from the ground and oxygen get in, basically for air or gas exchange, that will promote the grow of the grass root healthily. If the sands is too shallow you will have spots that the grass cannot grow healthily due to poor root grows. Do not worry too thick of sands layer, the root can grow very fast and deep to the clay soil underneath. See picture here people even resort to getting a digging fork for grass aeration.


The only setback of a thick sand layer is the grass grow taller. Not forgetting some of the sands will get into the clay layer over time with rains and you actually getting less top layer sands over time. Sands allow grass to grow, grass cannot grow well on compact soil, clay. Soil and clay will only get more and more compact over time as you step on it.

One important element is sunshine. Plenty of it your grass will be very healthy. When your grass grow very tall it is becasue it lack sunlight trying to catch more sunlight with longer leave or larger area of leave for making food, not so much because of thick sands layer.

So please level your ground as much as possible if you can only have 2 inches of sands. River sands, not construction sands, construction sands the white color one are not sand but broken stone consist of powder and rocks with sharp edges. The powder will compact the soil even further as it sink during rain and the rocks up to the surfaces blocking the area the grass can grow out of the ground.

From this picture you can see the fork is about 4 to 6 inches, that goes to say why 4 to 6 inches of sands layer is good for aeration.

No aeration (as the ground get more and more compact) the grass slowly turned yellow due to unhealthy root with plenty of dead or stale carbon dioxide. The root breath every day, every minute and every second. Under water it dies. Of course it get oxygen also from the leave but not enough for a healthy living.

This post has been edited by stevie8: Oct 21 2013, 04:37 PM