Suspended clay particulate colloids will get pulled into the seepage areas, however this unconsolidated material will not be compacted. It will remain soft and fluffy. To form a good seal, clay has to be compressed as relatively thin damp layers of material that are well compacted and the layers knitted together to form a thick liner layer not as thin soggy material pulled into or between a crack layer or loose material zone / area.
All good larger construction companies have special machines for efficient, best, engineer, quality compaction of material at commercial or road building construction sites. Any bulldozer guy who does not have or use high quality compaction machines is a hole digging dirt mover and not a real pro pond builder. You dig a hole however you BUILD and construct ponds. Dug holes leak and well built ponds hold water well.
For your leakage problem while the pond is full, you could look into the polymer pond sealer products. Some are better than others,,,, similar to pond builders. One brand name product often discussed here on the Forum is SoilFloc that has gotten good customer reviews. Polymer type products cause a catalytic bonding process that can create a stratum or layer that resists water penetration. Do your good homework for this method of trying to seal pond seepage. The degree of leakage and type of soil round the leak are important features for the success of the method. IMO these products are best used and applied while the pond is being built as insurance to minimize leaks. To correctly fix a leaky pond it can cost as much as it did to build the pond.
Last edited by Bill Cody; 09/02/24 11:01 AM.
