Two sticky questions

twopenny

1)  So i went to buy some gorilla glue which worked well sticking rubber draught excluder to a metal garage door but went hard in the tube a y ear on - and it had gone up to £10!
I can get No Nails and No More Nails for £5
I need to repair the above where it accidental got pulled off and a few bits and pieces to do.
Do you have a prefered strong sticky stuff?


2) I've seen a large terracotta bowl that I'd like to sink as a small pond. It's rough fired clay inside. There is a special waterproofing paint but I wondered what opinion would be of sucess at sticking pond liner I have to the pot?
No hard frosts here and small enough to empty and refix in future.
And of course, any recommendations for the adhesive.....

Thanks for any help for the clueless - and glueless 

flashg67

My go to glue for rubber etc, in fact most things needing a good bond, is an impact/contact adhesive, (the best known one is evo stick but Screwfix etc have their own brands). I think this would do for the pond liner too. Good old superglue will probably work well for the draught excluder.
I find a lot of adhesives will go off after a few months anyway

twopenny

I'd forgotten about Evostick.
It used to be wonderful stuff with a smell you wouldn't forget.
I stuck carpet squares to cement floor with it - not in a house.....

Bendy_House

Unless you smelled too much of it...

My go-to is Stixall, which is very sticky, comes in cartridges (so you need a skeleton gun), and sets like tough rubber. Very nicely gap-filling too.

Is the rubber excluder like a largish 'blade'? Or is it a foam strip as used on normal doors?

The pot idea is interesting. Because it'll be porous to some degree, once in the ground you'll almost certainly have moisture also coming through it from the outside, so any adhesive will need to be able to cope with that, and not be lifted off from behind. Mind you, the internal water pressure should keep any liner in place.

What's the plan - to line it ALMOST up to the top? Could this be done neatly? With a piece of liner pushed into a bowl, there will be numerous folds and creases on the sides, but especially at the top, which will be hard - nay, impossible - to disguise, I suspect?

I suspect that a painted coating will look a lot better.

Hang on! Do you mean to fit the liner to the OUTside? That should work - any water that seeps through the pot will find the same level on the outside, and stop seeping! I wonder how much you'd lose through the pot wall in any case, even without a liner?

Sounds like a plan - dig hole in ground to neatly take the pot, make sure no sharp stones are present on its sides (eg use screeded soil), or first line with some material to offer protection, push in liner (could recycle a few layers of large plastic bags), gently push in pot and back-fill any gaps with sand or stone-free soil, and trim the liner at the correct height - level with surrounding soil. Would that work? I think it should. And the pot can just look like a pot.

Promise photos?

How big is this pot?

Thumbs_Up

Epoxy glue (2 parts you mix together).

https://www.amazon.co.uk/epoxy-glue/s?k=epoxy+glue

twopenny

Pot is about 48 diameter terracotta and 20+ deep earthenware. Exterior smoothed so somewhat less porous. The exterior could be painted.
Had forgotten about folds at top. Hot weekend so I'll practice.

The original pot has a curved in rim but shallower so one problem solved, another created.

Stock of anything still randomly available, can't be ordered so it's a case of going for it and solving the puzzle after. Will photo today.
I finally found someone who could tell me I can run a basic solar fountain as a pump. All depends who you speak to.

The garage doors were draught proofed cutting strips of rubber car mat stuck to/beyond inside edge so making it flex at the ground making a seal. No more winter debris to clean out, no draught and it isn't visible. £5 

Bendy_House

twopenny said:

Pot is about 48 diameter terracotta and 20+ deep earthenware. Exterior smoothed so somewhat less porous. The exterior could be painted.
Had forgotten about folds at top. Hot weekend so I'll practice.

The original pot has a curved in rim but shallower so one problem solved, another created.

Stock of anything still randomly available, can't be ordered so it's a case of going for it and solving the puzzle after. Will photo today.
I finally found someone who could tell me I can run a basic solar fountain as a pump. All depends who you speak to.

The garage doors were draught proofed cutting strips of rubber car mat stuck to/beyond inside edge so making it flex at the ground making a seal. No more winter debris to clean out, no draught and it isn't visible. £5 

Do I recall an old thread on here about the door seals?! Anyhoo, Stixall would - I'm pretty sure - be perfect for this. Sticky and with the right amount of flex.

Anyhoo, the pots. The more I think about it, the more I'm (pretty) certain the solution is an external plastic sheet - it'll be completely invisible, and FAR less hassle than anything else.

Dig hole, drop in pot, start firmly repacking soil around it, until you get to the point where the pot goes narrower towards the top (if it does? The pot needs to be pull-outable). Rotate and remove pot, leaving perfect soil hole behind.... Add layer of plastic (have you had any deliveries with an item wrapped in a large clear poly bag of reasonable thickness? We just had two bags of poly beans (for a bean bag) delivered, and the outer bags would have been perfect!), or two layers if you have any doubts about the integrity of the film, and then refit the pot, pressing it down firmly. Keep refilling the soil until you reach the surrounding ground level. Trim the plastic at this point. Peasy. Invisible. No real cost. And it should work.

twopenny

Thanks for the thinking BendyHouse. That seems a good idea but I'm reluctant to use plastic outside as I think it will cause condensation so constantly wet outside the pot and rotting the clay.

I'll see what the soil is like when I dig as to what comes next. The slope seems to keep it dryish for much of the year which is why

I've had broad pots on soil before to no ill effect and I may just half bury this as it's a sloping site it should be interesting.

I tried the liner and once warm it's not so bad but will need some fiddling. It gets warm and flexible quickly but hardens equally quickly so best done in the sun and moved. Sticking it will be interesting.

Because of the rim at the top it won't be visible with plants around to keep the heron off, a pigmy waterlilly and some stone to support the pipe for a fall of water.

It is only small and size fits the garden. 47cm x 27cm. Once I've done more in house then next year I may dig a wildlife pond. It's interesting doing this on a slope

    

My thanks to everyone who gave me their favourites so that I had some focus.There must be at least one of those available out here in the wilds.

Really appreciated.

Bendy_House

twopenny said:

Thanks for the thinking BendyHouse. That seems a good idea but I'm reluctant to use plastic outside as I think it will cause condensation so constantly wet outside the pot and rotting the clay.

I'll see what the soil is like when I dig as to what comes next. The slope seems to keep it dryish for much of the year which is why

I've had broad pots on soil before to no ill effect and I may just half bury this as it's a sloping site it should be interesting.

I tried the liner and once warm it's not so bad but will need some fiddling. It gets warm and flexible quickly but hardens equally quickly so best done in the sun and moved. Sticking it will be interesting.

Because of the rim at the top it won't be visible with plants around to keep the heron off, a pigmy waterlilly and some stone to support the pipe for a fall of water.

It is only small and size fits the garden. 47cm x 27cm. Once I've done more in house then next year I may dig a wildlife pond. It's interesting doing this on a slope

    

My thanks to everyone who gave me their favourites so that I had some focus.There must be at least one of those available out here in the wilds.

Really appreciated.

What a lovely spot, and what a lovely idea - did you come up with it, or did you see it somewhere? Especially the possibly part-buried option; you'll have fun experimenting with that! Or even sitting at jaunty angles? Can't wait to see it :-)

Ok, I'm going to give this one more bash! For starters, I don't think the pot will rot or suffer in any way from being kept permanently damp; surely - apart from perhaps frost - that is what it's designed for? It's a plant pot? And even without a liner or sealer, I doubt it would lose any significant amount or water through its shell in any case, so I suspect very strongly you could just bury it 'raw' without any issues at all; there will be far more water lost through evaporation than leakage. 

But, if you wanted to mitigate against any possible seepage loss, then - my final idea, and a piece of cake - wrap the outside FIRMLY in a few layers of cling-film with a nice overlap, before you bury it! Once you are happy with the finished level, just trim away the above-ground part. 

But I can't see you having any issues with this at all, tbh even without any sealer or liner. The pot would have to be very porous to be noticeable, I think. It'll need regular small top-ups in any case, through natural evaporation and plants, and best to use a water butt to provide this - much nicer water.

Sure, once the pond is established, I doubt you'll see any internal liner you've fitted either, but, until then, the lovely terracotta insides will be hidden behind a - what? - black liner?! Just look at the glowing insides of that pot in the pic - you'd cover that with plastic?!  And the sheer HASSLE of trying to fit this liner neatly! I'm pretty sure for no real purpose.

But, if you must... a successful way of fitting it could be to drape in the liner inside, fill it up with warm/hot water until it softens the plastic and it complies very neatly with the internal pot shape under water 'pressure', and then shove a Stixall cartridge nozzle down from above, between the liner and the pot, an inch or less down below the pot's top rim, and run a nice bead of the adhesive in there all the way around. Then dip your fingers in the water, thumbs on the outside of the rim, and run them all the way around the inside, pressing the liner firmly against the pot side to flatten and squish out the Stixall bead, and leave it to set. Even if the pot is damp, I understand Stixall will stick to wet surfaces in any case. I'd hope the liner would now retain it's neat fit even if emptied.

But, I just don't think this aggro is necessary. :-) And what an aggro...

Pleeez post photos of the finished landscape :-)

twopenny

More alternative ideas for which I'm grateful. It helps to think wider.
Your kind comments on the garden are appreciated. It was uncultivated land and due to covid mostly rescue and supermarket plants. Now full of birds, bees and butterflies so I'm chuffed. It does mean that i have a load of stone to use also.

In looking for sealants I came across a thread on this forum for 2008 on the same subject and the poster has kindly replied with further info and the result along with some extra tips.
Interestingly it involves rubber car mats also. Useful things obviously.

I also found the last tube of stixall in the area! So bonus.

Only emails to pond suppliers, bank holiday interuption and a long journey so it will be a while yet

Bendy_House

Cool. And looking forward to updates