Pond Skimmer Installation Project In Maryland For A Cleaner Pond
See How A Pond Skimmer Should Be Replaced For Ponds In Maryland, DC, And Northern Virginia
On a warm winter day just before spring maintenance kicks in, our Premier Pond team was called upon to make some Pond upgrades and repairs to a pond in Fulton, Maryland – Montgomery County.
A homeowner who has a well-established ecosystem pond is getting ready to put their home on the market and knows there are some maintenance problems and repairs that are needed. They don’t want to pass along these pond problems to the next owners.
This is when they decided to contact Premier Ponds about a new pond skimmer installation project.
How much does a pond skimmer cost?
The Problem: Pond Leaking And Poor Maintenance
For several years, the pond was losing water, and the pond owner needed to fill the pond frequently.
The two pond skimmers on the pond are also hard to keep clean.
At one time, the pond system worked very well, but due to the overgrowth of the aquatic plants and the large pond fish (big fish = big waste), cleaning the pond skimmers was a chore. These old pond skimmers were constantly getting filled with debris, which would result in poor water flow to the motors.
The constant water loss isn’t helping matters either.
As it turned out, the hardware on the pond skimmer face plates had long corroded away, and water was leaking through and going right underneath the liner of the pond.
Instead of repairing the seals on the old pond skimmers, the pond owner opted to replace them with new top-of-the-line Aquascape Signature Series pond skimmers.
Some of the benefits of these pond skimmers are big baskets to collect debris, a larger opening for water to pass through to the submersible pump, and even a more realistic faux stone lid.
So, by replacing the old pond skimmers with the new ones, both the pond skimmer leaks and the pond skimmer maintenance issues would be solved.
How do you choose the right pond skimmer?
Removing The Old Pond Skimmer
When we got there, we first took a measurement of the pond water level.
We then set up a large holding tub (1,600 gallons) and drained the pond to a workable level.
We stored 1,600 gallons of the pond water temporarily as we would also use this water to refill the pond when we finished. All the fish remained in the pond while we were working.
Once the water was about a foot below the openings of the old pond skimmers, we stopped pumping water out and began to remove the pond skimmers.
Then we moved all the rocks and gravel from around each pond skimmer in order to have room to work. These were all set aside as they would be placed back after the new pond skimmers are in.
We disconnected the motors, cut the plumbing lines, and dug out each pond skimmer.
Before lifting the old pond skimmers out of the ground we carefully removed the liner away from the pond skimmer openings. We would later use this same liner to attach to the new pond skimmers, so it’s very important not to damage it.
Dirt from the excavation was saved on a tarp as we would need the same dirt for back filling around the newly installed pond skimmers. Since the new pond skimmers are a little bigger and will actually sit a little deeper in the ground a good bit of dirt was generated.
Once the pond skimmer holes were big enough and allowed for a little wiggle room during the new install, we were ready to go!
Installing The New Pond Skimmer
Check out the video below to see how a new pond skimmer installation works, start to finish:
- With the new holes ready, we set in the new pond skimmers at the correct height, leveled them up, and backfilled around them (the overflow fitting in the pond skimmer is set with a transit to the maximum water level. This measurement was taken when we first arrived).
- Once each pond skimmer was set, backfilled, and tamped solid the liner was then attached. During the attachment, any excess liner was trimmed away as needed to fit the new larger opening and faceplate.
- The existing plumbing lines were then attached to the pond skimmers, and the motors were installed.
- Rocks were placed back at the front of and around the pond skimmer where they had been removed.
- While the pond water was being pumped back into the pond we added some mulch on the work area and cleaned up.
- When the pond water was finished pumping back into the pond the motors were plugged back in and the waterfalls back on.
Job Challenges
Our crew has repaired and replaced lots of pond skimmers.
Even still, we found this pond skimmer installation to be a little more challenging than normal due to very muddy conditions.
- It was early spring, and the ground was saturated from melted snow and rain
- The pond skimmer leaks also put so much water underneath the liner that the ground kept pouring water into the pond skimmer holes, and we were continuously bailing them out
- The backfill dirt became muddy and hard to work with
- Since the new pond skimmers sit lower in the ground, we had a tough time fastening the bottom row of screws on one
We could have removed more rocks, pulled the liner back, and done more excavating to prevent this, but in this case, that would have required disassembling and rebuilding a lot more of the pond.
A Satisfied Customer
When the customer came home and saw the new pond skimmers and how the debris baskets worked he knew that the new home owners would have a much easier time maintaining his pond. He also had the peace of mind that the leaks at the pond skimmers were gone and would no longer pose a problem.
