How to Patch a Rubber Pond Liner

Rescue your fish and aquatic plants by removing them from your pond. Plants can be picked up by their baskets or scooped from the surface and placed in plastic buckets. Fish must be scooped out of ponds with a dip net and placed in a fish tank for temporary storage.

Allow the water to continue leaking from your pond. When the surface of the pond stops at a certain level, you have probably found the level of your leak. Examine the pond around the water line. When you find the hole in the liner, mark it with a grease pencil.

Place one end of a garden hose into the water. Create a siphon by sucking on the other end of the hose until water drains freely from the hose. When the water line is well below your drain hole, remove the hose from the pond.

Scrub the pond liner all around your drainage hole with a nylon-bristled scrub brush to remove algae. Wait for the surface to dry, then rough up the rubber with a piece of steel wool.

Cut a piece of rubber from your patch kit so it overlaps the tear and covers the liner by 1 inch in all directions around the tear.

Cover one side of the patch and the liner around the tear with glue. Wait until the glue is tacky but not dry, then press the patch over the tear so the two glued sides are together. When you apply the patch, be careful not leave any wrinkles or air bubbles.

Smooth out the patch and work out any air bubbles that formed under the patch.

Allow the glue to cure for at least 48 hours.

Refill the water level and check that it does not drop. If the water level drops again, repeat steps 2 through 8 for your tear or any additional tears in the liner. Then return the fish and aquatic plants to the pond.