Now to join the liner back together the guy from Midland Butyl had told me that the most important part was to make sure the surface of the rubber was clean I was quite surprised how much effort it took to clean the algae etc from the surface but with a bit of elbow grease and a plastic scouring pad this was achieved.

Once clean I put a strip of the joining ribbon each side of the joint, and then cut strips 4" wide from the new rubber I had purchased which was in a 12 foot length and laid this on top. Now using a hot air gun (as used for stripping paint) you heat up the surface of the rubber until it is quite hot and then by using a hard wallpaper roller push down hard until it welds together. After a time I found it easier to heat up the joint and by using my knee to push it down hard I could put more pressure on the surfaces and in my opinion getting a better joint.

Once I had joined all the liner back together I had one more problem that was concerning me how to make the joint around the 4" pipes looking up from the bottom of the pond. Then I remembered something I had read in the book The Enigma of Koi which suggested that if you cut a hole in the liner about half the size of the pipe you should be able to stretch the liner over the pipe.
This to my amazement worked like a dream, and after it was stretched over it formed an overlap which I bedded into silicone and secured with a large stainless steel jubilee clip.

It was now 5:00p.m. and to all intents and purposes I was finished. All that had to be done was give the pond a good clean out, so I pushed on and by 7:00p.m. it was finished and the pond refilling. Time for a quick shower and down the pub to celebrate.

Day Five - Sunday.
Sunday and as it takes over 24 hours to fill the pond I had a day off.

Day Six - Monday.
Time to return the fish to the pond this took a long time as I wanted to make sure that the water temperature had equalised out correctly before releasing them, and then with the fish back in the pond, time to empty the vats and give them a good clean before I returned them to the Section.

In hindsight it was not as difficult to install the bottom drains as I perceived it would be. It is the same as any thing the proper planning of a job makes one hell of a difference when you actually come to do it.
It's a pity that I did not plan the pond properly when I built it first time.

Day Seven - Tuesday.
God is in Heaven and the fish are in the pond. I don't know if fish are capable of smiling, but I think mine are because I have never seen them so happy, but not half as happy as I am as the proud owner of bottom drains. Mike.

WARNING. Mike is a maintenance engineer and is very useful when working with his hands. This work should not be undertaken unless you are really confident that you can do this. The liner would need to be fairly new before you even considered doing this.