I have an 800 gallon koi pond. This story may sound familiar to a lot of pond owners. One fine day,…read moreafter using a maintenance service from a well-known koi pond company in Orange county for several decades, I was informed that the hourly labor price had more than tripled. So now my periodic maintenance would cost more than I could afford, combined with an emergency repair as I noticed the water level dropping over the course of several weeks.
I called around for references, and my brief survey indicated that koi ponds were now considered the domain of the wealthiest 1%, who could support the exorbitantly priced koi pond maintenance industry, all made possible by a costly insurance/licensing ecosystem. Small pond owners like me were out of luck, especially older ones who found themselves increasingly limited, physically.
For a brief time, I found a guy who didn't charge much per hour, but also didn't much like taking direction (!). We got along for a while, then parted ways when his eccentricities and poor communication got to be too much. He's the kind of guy who gives contractors a bad name.
I don't know how, but I managed to find another reference--it was for this service, and the owner, Max, came to see my pond and discuss a plan for isolating the location of the leak. It took a while to address the entirety of the problem. Max and I first discussed the most likely area at the top tier of my waterfall. I showed him where roots from my pepper tree periodically invaded several corners of what used to be a water-tight basin. He agreed that a concrete fix was not appropriate, so he proposed a two layer flexible solution consisting of a foaming paste under a heavy rubber pond liner. The paste served as an adhesive for the liner. It worked well, and my leak was reduced by maybe 60% or more. Max identified a second area one step down. But that, too, needed confirmation. Over the next few weeks, Max would drop by and bring pipe fittings to reroute the input to the waterfall. Together, we eliminated (as suspects) the underground plumbing, main pond body, filter and pump, and all of the above ground plumbing. Finally, he routed the water to hit just the area he suspected and the leak returned. This time he applied some concrete to the entire area under the first drop-off of the waterfall, opening a big hole under a boulder and then filling it with the new concrete. After letting the concrete cure, the waterfall plumbing was put back to its original configuration. The leak is now gone.
Now, this kind of activity is rife with the possibility of personalities rubbing against each other. Also, there could be friction concerning the labor cost for all the times Max came over. But nothing of the sort occurred. In fact, Max is a darn likable person! He even showed me a great technique for priming my above-ground pump. This is in contrast to the last guy I had who, when faced with the difficulty of priming the pump, said, "I didn't sign up for this!"
The matter of the waterfall repair took place when the Wuhan virus was in full effect. Max had a suddenly overfull schedule from all the turmoil affecting people's lives. He had a lot of loyal customers, and was just hit with some absent workers. He had little time to spend on my problem, as he needed to hire new staff and work a fuller schedule in the meantime. So I was prepared for the #1 symptom of over-extended contractors: ghosting. You know, when a contractor doesn't show up and stops answering the phone. Honestly, Max didn't strike me as that type of person. But I resigned myself to not worrying about the koi pond as long as things progressed every week or so. I figured Max was "neck deep" in his own business right now. Imagine my surprise when Max called me in a timely manner and started talking schedule, availability, and steps to completion. Ok, maybe I'm a bit jaded by contractors over my lifetime. But it's a good sign--no, a VERY good sign when your contractor is tracking your very small potatoes project and making sure you are taken care of.
Max will be visiting one last time. He'll test the water and checkout the final status of the waterfall. And I'll pay him his very reasonable hourly rate for his time--more than he asked me to pay. He wasn't going to bill me for the extra time he spent showing up so many times, cutting and refitting pipe to try to isolate the leak.
Max is a good man. He deserves good customers and I wish him all the best. I'm selling my house and will highly recommend him to the new owner.
