I have my pond drained due to a leak at the base of the damn where water is working its way through the rock layers. The contractor and I are working to re-smear the botton, add more clay, put bentonite on and then more clay. However I have read several places were folks have used geo-fabrics on the bottom to help keep the material from continuting to wash into the rock. I just want this to be the first and last time I have to drain it for a leak and am thinking of adding it as belt and suspenders.

Does anyone have suggestions on which of the many materials to use. Not looking for the PVC liner here, but rather the fabric that will just keep the material from washing into the rock.

Thanks!

Not sure if this is what you are looking for but there is a black material made to put under drive way rock.I have this under my drive and recently had to dig some up for a project and this stuff is tough. Might be worth looking at.

In the construction of weirs and overflows, we use engineering fabric to cover the soil before placing rock on top. This prevent water from undercutting soil beneath the rock. It come in various size rolls, ours are 15'x300'.

I've used woven driveway fabric from US Textiles for road work. Same stuff would probably work great for a spillway or perhaps a leak repair. Heck, they might even have a specialty fabric for just that purpose. Website is

http://www.usfabricsinc.com/products/drivewayfabric

DCobb, that stuff works great for stone driveways - it really, really minimizes the need to re-stone the driveway every couple of years. I used something like that, or maybe it was that, but I had a friend get it for me. Thanks for the link!

There are many construction geotextiles designed for different applications. I'd suggest you contact a local dealer and find out what they carry then check the manufacturers website to find out which product will work best for you. You can ask the lacky behind the counter what will work best but I wouldn't trust his recommendation unless he seems to really know his stuff.

When we reworked our lake we put rip rap along the entirety of the dam - over 200 yards - and we had a great contractor with lots of experience building lakes for state and federal projects over his 50 year career. He not only suggested putting down geotextile underneath the rip rap to prevent the rocks from disappearing over the years and to prevent weed growth among the rip rap, but he also insisted we use a thick, petroleum-based, felt-like textile material that he says is best and lasts longest. I don't know what it's called but it was more expensive than typical woven geotextiles. It's performing great and no weeds can work their way through it.