We want to make a pond but cannot find good quality liner here, only 0.5mm PVC rather than 0.75mm butyl rubber. The Portuguese make those big charcas and I would've thought they would use stuff that lasts but I don't know where they get it or even what it's called in Portuguese. Any ideas please, anyone?  

we got 2-3 mm butyl from mestre maco 7 yrs ago and its now called IZI. was 6m across which was useful. try also leroy merlin and aki and maxmat  

Thanks Pete, was in Maxmat this morning and found that it is called Lona por lago but they only have the 0.5mm PVC. There are none of the other chains you mention in my area (IZI in Castelo Branco sadly closed this year) but maybe when we are on holiday in the Algarve in the autumn we can get to some of them.  

- Cherrytree

We want to make a pond but cannot find good quality liner here, only 0.5mm PVC rather than 0.75mm butyl rubber. The Portuguese make those big charcas and I would've thought they would use stuff that lasts but I don't know where they get it or even what it's called in Portuguese. Any ideas please, anyone?

Hi, hubby has just built a fish pond in one of our gardens and we struggled to find the pond liner stuff, we went everywhere so we ended up buying a preformed one instead. We had the plants shipped over from a seller we use regularly on Ebay who sells aquatic plants and everything looks wonderful especially at night with the pond lights lit up... don't buy the pond pump/waterfall here, they cost a fortune, we wanted one with 4 fountain settings and they were over 100 euros here (we looked in loads of diy shops/garden centres, etc) so we bought one from Amazon for just under 20 pounds (28 pounds with postage!)...let us know if you want any details. There is something very cooling about sitting around the pond, especially in this heat!  

Ended up getting a friend to bring a liner back from the UK but noticed when we opened it that the 40 year guarantee is only valid in the UK! Anyway, have now almost got a pond having dug the hole at the weekend but not lined it yet. Will be needing water plants but have never seen any in my area so, sadly, I may have to get these brought over from the UK too!  

Worth look in Adubupor in Portimao, they sell pretty much everything else!  

Thanks Steppitoe, I'll have a look next year when we are in the Algarve