How I Built A Waterfall
Courtesy of "Pete's Pond Page"
By Pete Orelup
I added the waterfall at the head of my existing stream so that the waterfall empties into the small existing pool there. First, I built up the ground level over a 6'x6' area where I intended to place the waterfall. Then I placed several large rocks (I used field stones) on the newly raised area to form a rough trough shape. I used maybe four large rocks to do this. The rocks sort of formed a U shape with the bottom of the U being the highest point at the top of the falls, and the open top of the U toward the existing pool. I made sure to set the stones into the dirt so that they were fairly stable and wouldn't move easily.
I then added more dirt in the trough area between the rocks, sloping the dirt down toward the pool. Next, I added a flexible liner over the dirt. The liner forms the catch basin for the waterfall. At the base of the falls, it overlaps with the liner for the existing pool. This way, it doesn't really matter how watertight my rock-work is, since anything that leaks through is caught by the liner and runs down into the pool.
Next came my concrete trough. I placed wire mesh over the liner to serve as reinforcement for the concrete and then created a 3" thick trough over the liner. I didn't bother to set any rocks into this concrete, but did use some additives to darken it to a dark gray and to make it more waterproof. I used plastic cement instead of portland cement since it's supposed to hold up better in water. I let the concrete cure for one week before proceeding.
At this point I had an outer shell of rock with a cement trough running through the middle over a liner. The next step was to use mortar and rocks to cover the trough to make it look natural. I did this in three phases, just because of the amount of time it took to place the mortar and rocks and the amount of mortar I could conveniently mix at one time. Again, I colored the mortar dark grey so that any that was left uncovered by rock would look like a shadow cast by the rocks. This trick works very well. First, I build a pool into the top of the falls using mortar and some flat rocks. I basically just built a "dam" across the trough near the top. I used a very flat rock at the top of the dam and made sure to set it level so that I'd have an even sheet of water passing over it. In the next phase, I used mortar to add small fieldstones to the edges of the trough to hide the exposed concrete and build up the sides of the trough to avoid too much water loss from splashing. In the third phase I covered up any remaining bare spots and added a "mirror" stone at the base of the top falls to divide the water into two streams and add some sound to the falls.
After the mortaring was complete, I added several loose field stones on top of the original base stones to fill in any areas where concrete might still show through and to create a more natural shape to the whole mound of rocks.
The water for my waterfall is carried by a 4" black ABS pipe in which the water flows by gravity from the biofilter. The pipe drains into the upper pool built into the trough, and is hidden by some field stones in the pool and more stones piled above the pipe. The pipe is still visible from behind the falls, but I have planted ferns and other plants that should conceal it in time.
Courtesy of "Pete's Pond Page"
Pete Orelup
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