I want to build a water feature of the kind where streams of water come out of the ground and kids walk in and splash around. What do I need to know? Where can I get some info? What’s a good book I can buy on the subject?
Any help or pointers would be greatly appreciated.
ETA: Even, what are those called so I can google more effectively?
Missed the edit window.
Here is a picture of one, so you know what I am talking about.
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/photos/thumbs/lrg-7816-p1170034.JPG
I have heard them called “Pop Jet Fountains” and if you use those keywords and do so some quick googling I think that may lead you in the right direction.
BTW, I don’t think that they would be difficult to build, but you have to know something about water, pumps and electricity to make sure they are safe.
Thanks, googling around I also found the term “zero grade” fountains. Although I am not getting many good results with that one. Will try “pop jet”.
The actual construction will be on the hands of professionals, so water and wiring will be up to someone who knows what he is doing. I will be doing mostly the design of it.
Ok, after a couple visits to related merchants, this is my plan.
I plan to make a very shallow pool (about a foot deep). Do all the piping in the thick PVC (diameter to be determined by the pump I end up buying) with a T on every spot I want a nozzle. Nozzles are brass but they use threaded joints to attach to PVC.
On top of all that, I will lay some concrete pavers they use to bury under grass to make a firm surface to drive on. They are like a grate with little legs. The legs are supposed to point up and are what comes out of the grass to make the driving surface but I will be using them upside down so the legs will keep the grate over the pipes.
Then use pavers for the surfaces where people will walk and fill the gaps with gravel.
It would end up looking like smooth concrete paths among inch deep channels of water with a gravel bottom from where the jets of water come out.
The pumps and filters would be regular swimming pool equipment and the water would be treated as swimming pool water for chemistry balance and care.
Does this make any sense?
I don’t see in your plan a method to recover the water for reuse. You’re going to need some sort of catch basin with a waterproof liner and a drain sump so the water can be piped back to the pump. Depending on the area involved you might be better off to have a concrete basin and forget the gravel.
Yes, when I say make a shallow pool, I mean either a concrete lined pool or at least a plastic lined pool. The water will be recovered from the bottom of it just as in a swimming pool, from there to the filters and pumps.
The idea of the gravel is to hold the walking surface on top of the water surface and over all the pipe work that will be inside the pool (over the bottom of it, under the walking surface).
Also, the gravel will be the apparent bottom of the pool on those areas where there is no walking surface.
Oh hell, no point in being coy about it. I am making a maze. The gravel bottom under an inch of water and with popping jets will be the walls, while the smooth “dry” pavers will be the passages.
The pavers will sit on top of the gravel.
In summary, you have a one foot deep pool (lined with whatever and with a drain to recover the water and send it to the adequate pump and filters). Inside that pool go all the pipes that take the water to the jets. Then you cover all the pipes with gravel. Then make the paths with stone pavers. When you fill the pool, the water covers the gravel but not the paths. The jets come from under the gravel and between the pavers giving height to the walls.
What I would need is some ideas as to how to estimate the pumps and filters I need, etc.
I don’t have exact measures for anything yet, but here go some rough numbers. I am planning on 100’x100’ surface at 1’ deep. That’s 67,500 gallons, I think. For a braided maze of 16x16 (giving 6 foot wide passages), that should be about 268 wall segments of around 6’ long. With jets at 2’ from each other and discounting shared jets on adjacent wall segments, I have 412 jets. I want these jets to be around 2’ feet tall.
So in summary we are talking about a 70K gallon pool with 450 2’ jets and 2000’ of pipes.
What kind of gear will I need?
What size pipes will I need?
Any objections or alternatives to my scheme of pipes under gravel?
Will water flow well through the gravel bed to the drain?
Can anyone recommend a vendor for the nozzles?
Don’t you think this is an incredibly cool idea?
Changed thread title at OP’s request. The old title was: “So I want to build a fountain. Help needed.”
Much obliged
The major problem I see is cleaning up debris. The gravel is going to pass water just fine, but such a shallow, wide pool will make skimmers less effective in catching things like leaves, and the gravel will make it difficult (impossible?) to suck off the bottom.
The gravel also provides an excellent breeding ground for algae. Some algae is easier to scrub off than it is to poison, especially if it gets a head start on you.
Right, skimmers are definitely useless here, ditto for vacuum cleaners. Also impossible to scrub the bottom since it will be buried under a mesh of pipes and a foot of gravel.
Big debris, like leaves, would be probably easier to just blow away off hours with a leaf blower. Even on the wet parts. Or just pick it up. Smaller stuff like cigarette butts and balled gum wrappers could be a real nightmare. Hadn’t really thought of that.
Maybe just bigger gravel so the small stuff just falls through to the bottom.
Would algae be more of an issue in this type of installation than on a normal swimming pool? Could I compensate through water chemistry to avoid issues?
Might forget about gravel altogether and just have thinner pavers for the water channels (walls) and higher pavers for the passages with plenty of gaps in between for water to move.
What if I kept the gravel out of sight under pavers? Would hidden algae become a problem? Would algae grow in the dark? I still think that gravel is a great way to lift the pavers from the bottom of the pool to make room for the pipes. It is easy to remove for service if needed.