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Water feature construction guide Water feature construction guide for the first timer, So you are going to construct a water feature, you dig a hole throw in a sump put a pump in the sump and a pipe from the sump to the feature right? Well, no, please read on. The pump The pump needs to be capable of pumping water to above the height of your feature, most pumps will have a guide on the box as to how high they can pump to. It is always better to get a bigger pump than you need because you can always turn a big pump down, you can not turn a small pump up. Also if you thought all pumps are the same think again, please read our page here The sump So how big should the sump be? First of all it must be deeper than the pump, (yes people do get a sump that is too shallow) It should also be big enough to catch water splash. (see the JW rule) Now you know why some features you see are empty, or why you see water marks / damp patches surrounding it. So what can you use for a sump? The most common sump for the DIY person is a 4 gallon water storage tank. You can "cheat" by having a small sump and installing a liner in the sump with the liners edges extending from the sump to act as a catchment area, but if you do this do remember to make the liner slope in towards the sump ALL THE WAY ROUND
Lighting That is your choice, the easiest way is to have a light sitting in-front of the sump pointing up towards the feature, you will need a "spotlight" type of light to do this, since all other lights will illuminate everything around and not the feature. Red, yellow and orange are good for lighting water falls, fountains and features can have any colour. Green and blue lights are also good for lighting the surrounding plants. Notes: Please read If you want to have 2 wall features you will need a bigger pump (or possibly 2 pumps) the sump will have to be bigger (wider) and please mount the wall features at the same height, otherwise all the water will come from the lower feature, you can overcome this by fitting a regulator in the feed to the LOWER feature, so that you regulate the flow and the remaining water comes from the higher feature. The grille is an optional extra, it may or may not be suitable for you, but it does stop children from falling in, as well as holding any decorative material, i.e gravel, slate etc Once you have finished the construction, you should fill with water, plug in your pump via an rcd and switch on, sit back and enjoy. If this has been helpful to you please fill in our Guest book This page is dedicated to Anna van Dongen Back to DIY Fountain |
