After 5 futile day waiting for the pre-mixed concrete that never came. A decision was made, we were going to do it ourself, mixing it old school, hardcore style. 1 part cement, 2 part sand, and 4 parts gravel.
My cousin who is in the construction business brought us to the building material store to get the supplies, and lend some free professional consultations too.
I bought: 1 fork-lift scoop of gravel, 2 scoops of sand, 2 sheets of BRC, 8 packs of cement, 450 cement-bricks, 150 red-bricks, 3 packs of water-proofing agent, 2 rows of brick wire mesh.
Total cost: RM 680+
Building material delivered, looking like a construction yard now.
Cousin giving a few words of advice
BRC is laid for a strong foundation
BRC had to be raised a couple inches high (using bricks) so that it’ll be in the middle layer of the concrete
Mixing the concrete, Big David helped, and so did Chan
David gotten a bit tired..
Sotong was just fooling around, as usual
While they mix, I level the concrete foundation at approximately 5 inches thick
And it was done!
Next up – Brick wall
While waiting for the pre-mix concrete that never came, we decided to construct a roof partially over the pond. This would ensure the pond does not get too much sunlight. Koi loves a cool temperature, furthermore, extra sunlight promotes algea growth that will make the water green.
We bought some 1″x2″ and 2″x3″ beams for the construction, the plan is to construct only one column at the right end. Connect that to the existing extended roof at the left side like a ’7′ shape, both with the 2″x3″ beams. The structure would then be connected with the smaller 1″x2″ beams to the existing roof at the top. Put a layer of the “netting” that is usually used for orchids, and we’re set.
Total cost of the roof was around RM 100. That includes the saw, too.
Connecting the skinny beam to the ’7′ shaped column.
Power tools to the help
Chisseled the edge for a nice finishing
Sawed off the edge, fancy my acrobatic move? Yeah, it translate to performance in other areas too!
The frame is up!
Horng put some finishing touches to the netting
Success!
That took us the whole saturday.
Next up – Concrete Foundation!
So one day my housemate and long time (over 20 yrs) friend Horng and I had the brilliant idea of building a pond in the garden. A Koi Pond.
At first I thought of digging a hole, throwing in a pre-built fiberglass pond, and be done with. After scouring the local aquarium stores and Ikano, we figure the pre-builts are a little too small for what we had in mind, and they weren’t cheap either. Hence we arrived at the decision to build a cement pond.
The plan is to dig a hole, pour in concrete for the base, build up the wall, apply water proofing agent, fix up the bio filter, landscaping and gardening, put in fish, done. Sounds simple? Here we go!
And then we started digging…
The digging took about a week to complete, deep end is slightly over 3 feet, shallow part a bit over 2 feet.
Goh came and lend a helping hand too, for about 15 minutes anyway. Chan helped a bit too.
The almost finished hole..
I swear I didn’t kill her…
Originally we were going to pour in pre-mixed concrete that Faggot was going to order for us. Unfortunately due to some unforseen circumstances and 5 days later, we gave up and decided to DIY the concrete part..
Next up – The Roof.
