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Brick wall waterfall, would love any advice
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Posted by benjilloyd Cheshire, UK (My Page) on Tue, Apr 26, 05 at 15:48
| Hi,
In short we want to have a sheet of water to fall from a removed brick in a brick wall pillar!
For over 2 years now I have dreamt of the idea of having water falling from our two brick 'pillars' on the back wall of our garden.
I've toiled over what to use to ensure the water falls as a thin sheet, not to have too much splash, not to have too much noise, the right pump, etc, etc ... I have to act as I'll never do it!
I just need advice from someone who has tried this sort of thing! I am wondering if anyone could help make the right decisions?
The idea is to remove a brick approx 1.5 metre up, source a pipe at the side of the pillar (hidden by the our Ivy) and have this fall into a 'pebble pool' as a sheet of water on each of the two pillars in our conventional brick wall - the pillars are simply the 'structural' square brick pillars put in walls.
When we moved into the house, just over 2 years ago I even put the pebble pools into the ground under each pillar! I just now need to do the difficult bit :-)
Can anyone help?
I live in Cheshire I would love to 'commission' someone local to help me out! Failing that *any* advice would be welcomed, such as "don't do it you fool it will sound like an aircraft and splash like an elephant".
Cheers
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Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Brick wall waterfall, would love any advice
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First thing that strikes me is that 1.5 metres is tall for a small water fall, the 'risk' being the water will be blown away by any wind. To get the sheet fall you would need to make or buy some form of shoot that will project beyond the wall's face. This would need to be fed from a 'pool' so that the flow was smooth.
Re flowrate that's the awkward bit, the norm is 50 gph per inch of width, ie 450gph, but I dont know if you want below that. I suggest you jury rig something fed by a hose from the tap and when you find an effect that pleases you measure the flow rate by timing how long the flow takes to fill a container of known volume. Once you have a ball park figure for the flowrate you can look for a pump but that is the subject of another post or thread. |
RE: Brick wall waterfall, would love any advice
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| To get an idea of the noise level and splash slowly pour a bucket of water onto your pebble pond from your desired waterfall height. I think it would be quite loud and a large splash radius if the water falls onto pebbles, less so if it falls onto a pool of water. I think to achieve a smouth, clean sheet of falling water over a 1.5m drop would be very difficult, any breeze would break it up. |
RE: Brick wall waterfall, would love any advice
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| Sometimes gardne centres have pump displays. Ours used to have a hozelock display with an outlet about the size of a brick. You could then press buttons to change the flow rate to decide which pump you needed. It was quite frightening what flowrate you got with alot of the pumps. Another way to go rather than the "freefall" might be to do something with a sheet or perspex just in front of the wall. A pierced hose with lots of holes could deliver a sheet of water to the top of the perspex. Again, playing around with a hose pipe is a good way to look at effects before you start. Another thought, to get a sheet of water, the brick needs to be perfectly flat. It will still have the tendency to converge so it won't be a sheet at the bottom. Using a finely corrugated former might help this. Do experiments with corrugated cardboard to see if I'm right. (ps this is from the person who has built a waterfall between 2 ponds but still not connected a pump!) |
RE: Brick wall waterfall, would love any advice
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| to achieve the type of effect you are after over that sort of height i think damp has hit the nail on the head. a perspex sheet or maybe even stainless steel. seen it done its very effective, i guess the material choice would depend on the look of the pond? any pics? jo o/ |
RE: Brick wall waterfall, would love any advice
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| Thanks everyone. I think the conclusion is that it wouldn't really be possible. A backing isn't really possible because the pillars are covered in Ivy already (2-3 feet high). We had toyed with the idea of a trickle of water, this would still be effected by wind but to a lesser degree and cause less damp. Our problem finding something that will trickle water from a wall is that they have to be one of the follow: A lions head, A newt, A face, A frog or a shell!! Does anyone know of a small wall mounted fountain/water feature that will trickle water out of a spout, allowing it to fall into a peble pool? Something non-gaudey(sp?) and inconspiqious? I'd be quite happy with a copper pipe/tap but something a bit more finished would be nicer! :-) I would be quite happy to submit pics if anyone is interested |
RE: Brick wall waterfall, would love any advice
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RE: Brick wall waterfall, would love any advice
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| Yes please! You can upload photos direct on the gallery. |
Here is a link that might be useful: gallery
RE: Brick wall waterfall, would love any advice
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| Hi guys, I have posted the pics. This is the link to the initial post I made with the pictures (there are 5 in all): http://www.uk.gardenweb.com/forums/ukponds/?type=gal&random=18856 Look forward to your ideas.cheers |
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