Sounds like a miscommunication. A skimmer and UV are completely unrelated. It's like say a car should have tires instead of doors. You should ask the contractor more questions and understand his reasoning. There is also the possibility the contractor doesn't know anything about ponds.

The bolts can rust also makes no sense. That would be one crappy skimmer if it used bolts that could rust.

Has this contractor ever heard of silicone seal? When I installed my skimmer I put silicone seal around the face plate before I tightened the screws (not bolts). Sounds like he doesn't know how or doesn't want to install a skimmer. I would look for another contractor. The UV light kills suspended algae. A skimmer keeps debri off the surface of the pond, which prevents it from falling to the pond bottom. Did you discuss a bottom drain? I ended up installing my own pond because all the contractors I talked to wanted to build huge waterfalls, but told me I didn't need a bottom drain, skimmer or UV. Be careful before you decide, or it could get costly later on.

Jenny

DH and I built our own ponds and we didn't install a skimmer, bottom drain nor UV. The first and biggest was built in 1996 and we are still happy with our decision not to have any of them.

There are difficult types of ponds, different needs. Wildlife ponds not only don't need BD, skimmer and UV, they would harm that type of pond.

I'd fire a contractor on the spot if they used silicone to seal something. It's a sign of shoddy workmanship. Silicone is an extremely temporary measure, enough to get through the warranty period.

waterbug guy:

I always use clear silicone seal around the faceplate and the screws that hold the faceplate to the skimmer to seal any areas that may leak. I don't consider this shoddy workmanship and have been doing this for years. I have been ponding for 12 years now and found this is fail safe for any leakage in and around the skimmer faceplate.

Jenny

Waterbug guy,

I would fire anyone that didn't use something to seal the liner to the skimmer unless a Savio skimmer was being installed. Silicone will not seal the liner to the skimmer without a face plate to compress it. To my knowledge Savio is the only skimmer that doesn't require silicone or some other sealant. The nice thing about silicone is that if it ever does have to be taken apart it is easily removed where other sealants can be a problem to remove.

I would guess that the contractor was talking about the bolts on ADI skimmers dissolving over a few years period of time. If the contractor actually said a UV instead of a skimmer then I would ask him why he said this. And unless this was a total miscommunication I would look for a different contractor.
Mike

Neoprene gasket is superior imo. I'm sure silicone is fine for most people. For me, the extra $1.23 is worth it.