Pond lining in the New Forest

Ponds on Forest ground

The open Forest already has its own ponds, mires and streams, and they are protected habitat that stays as it is. The lining work we do is on private land: gardens, smallholdings, equestrian properties, estates and farms in and around villages like Burley, Sway, Bransgore and Bramshaw, and along the Avon valley.

On the plateau gravels and sandy heath soils a dug pond drains away. In the clay valleys it can hold, but water pressure from a high winter water table can push under a liner and lift it if the pond is drawn down. Your designer decides whether the basin needs drainage or venting beneath it; we build the liner to suit.

Picking a membrane for the setting

In a landscape this sensitive, most pond owners want the liner out of sight. EPDM and PP lie close to shallow margins and shelves, so planting and a soil cover can hide the edge. HDPE suits a larger irrigation or fire pond on a farm, where a tough, UV-resistant sheet matters more than looks. LLDPE is a middle ground for medium ponds with weldable panels. If a natural clay bed is the aim, a GCL may be the better route.

What happens on the day

Your contractor digs and trims the basin. We check the formation, removing roots and stones from it before the geotextile underlay is rolled out. The membrane panels are welded with wedge and extrusion kit, a test weld is carried out and logged, and pipework and overflows are sealed into the liner.

Around the rim, the sheet drops into an anchor trench and is buried so it can't creep. Our weld log and the pond's handover file come to you on the last day. Our crews come down from Tamworth and plan around access along narrow Forest lanes, so tell us early about gates, cattle grids and soft ground.