RUBBER POND LINERS: A GUIDE TO MAKING THE RIGHT CHOICE
Rubber pond liners are the traditional method for building a reliable, high-quality pond. They are flexible, relatively strong, and built to last many years when installed. EPDM is the most common type of rubber pond liner you will encounter, but you may also see Butyl rubber in certain cases. The main benefit of EPDM rubber is its high flexibility and bendability. While we have stronger and more puncture-resistant liners here at Everything Ponds, such as our Premium RPE liner, or our 3D shaped box-welded liners made out of extra strong polypropylene, EPDM is still hard to beat when you need to fold a liner into a tight space or around numerous shelves, corners, or bends.
EPDM Pond Liners
An Ethylene Propylene Diene Monomer, or EPDM pond liner, is another popular choice among pond builders. Although EPDM pond liners cannot be welded like butyl liners, the seams can be taped with heavy-duty butyl tape, rendering them fully waterproof. That being said, there is a reasonable chance that when purchasing an EPDM pond liner, you will be able to find a single piece large enough to line your entire pond without any seams, as EPDM is available in many different sizes and shapes. Because of this, it often takes less experience and equipment to effectively line a pond with EPDM since no welding is required. However, because EPDM liners are flat sheets, when conforming to a 3D shape like a pond, there will naturally be folds or pleats present. These can often be hidden with plants, rocks, or other features, but nevertheless, this could be considered a disadvantage compared to a box-welded butyl liner, which would have no folds whatsoever.
Butyl Rubber Liners
Isobutylene Isoprene Rubber, commonly nicknamed BUTYL, is a synthetic rubber frequently used in everyday products that require a waterproof or airtight bladder. Examples of products using Butyl include tire inner tubes, ball air bladders, caulks and sealants, cling wrap, and even chewing gum. One of the advantages of Butyl as a pond liner is the ease with which smaller, flat sheets can be welded together to create virtually any 3D shape, a process known as box-welding. However, these days, here at Everything Ponds, we choose to create our 3D shaped liner inserts with 45 mil polypropylene or EIA liner due to its being multiple times stronger than EPDM or Butyl.
Box Welding Butyl Rubber Pond Liners
Often, a butyl rubber pond liner or reinforced polypropylene liners can be box-welded into commonly sized 3D pond shapes, such as square, rectangular, or L shapes. Box-welded liners are very easy to install and often contain no folds or bunches due to their custom-made shape. Everything Ponds even creates box-welded liners made to order based on a set of plans or a template. The only downside to box-welded liners is that we are limited to relatively simple shapes, such as circles or shapes with 90-degree corners. If you plan on building a pond in a very irregular shape, or with lots of shelves and ledges, it is generally better to fold a flat sheet liner into place, like an EPDM rubber liner, or our Premium RPE liner.
Box Welded Polypropylene Liners
As mentioned above, polypropylene is an excellent material for creating box-welded liners. We sell it in a number of preformed box shapes, such as L Shapes, Box shapes, or Circles, and certain custom shapes are available as well. The main advantage of buying a preformed box-welded liner is the cost savings; you'll spend much less money buying a preformed shape rather than hiring a contractor to custom weld the liner on site. Our polypropylene is a great product – it's highly UV resistant, strong, light, and very safe for fish, plants, and humans. In fact, like our Premivum RPE liner, our box-welded liners are NSF-61 certified, making them safe even for drinking water, which is the highest rating a liner can receive. EPDM, while being fish and plant safe, does not carry the same rating. The NSF-61 rating also means it's approved for human consumption applications like fish farming, gardening, or even for storing drinking water. To learn more and see prices for various sizes, please visit the liner section in our store.
Choosing a Manufacturer
Once a pond is completed, it would obviously be quite costly and time-consuming to remove and replace the pond liner. For this reason, choosing a reputable liner manufacturer upfront could save you headaches down the road. When selecting a rubber pond liner, it is important to choose one specifically marketed for the pond industry, rather than a different industry such as roofing. Although the two industries may seem similar, roofing membranes may contain certain chemicals that could be dangerous to fish and other life in your pond.