Water features are a great asset to landscapers—they can take a landscape design to the next level—but not well thought out and they can turn a project into a headache. Here are 7 mistakes we see landscapers commonly make with water features and how to avoid them. Our goal is to make water your friend and a tool you’re excited to share with clients.
1) Believing fencing is needed for all water bodies deeper than 300mm
Many landscapers we talk to believe ponds deeper than 300 mm need to be fenced. This isn’t true. The Victorian builders association website says, ‘barriers aren’t required for birdbaths, fountains, water storage supply tanks, fish ponds, dams… the list goes on’. The logic here is that if we had a fence around every single pond or dam, then it would get crazy. Where would you stop? So, legally you don’t have to put a fence around a pond or a dam. However, if the pond or dam has the purpose of swimming or looks appealing to swim in to a child, then definitely fence it. The same is true if there are children in the house or in the area; you should fence it.
There are some contractors who will happily build clients ‘recreational’ ponds masked as swimming ponds. In other words, a client asks for a swimming pond with no fence and the contractor says, ‘no troubles, just call it a recreational pond instead’. This is skirting around the blurred line we discussed above. Just consider things clearly here, while this may be getting you around the law, if someone was to drown in that pond, you would not want to find yourself in front of a judge saying, ‘yes, I spoke to the client about it being a swimming pond and recommended they call it a recreational pond’. If the pond is not for swimming and doesn’t look swimmable to a child, feel free to scrap the fence.
2) Not including a pump and filter in the water feature build. And constructing the water feature in such a way there’s no way of adding equipment later.
Obviously not including a filter and pump with a water feature saves clients money upfront, but the risk is callbacks months or years later; clients complaining their waterbody is covered in algae or weeds, or emitting odour, or full of sludge.
If your clients are interested in having a water feature, we recommend discussing pumps and filters with them right off the bat. That way, you can factor their decisions into your quote. If this includes a water feature, we highly recommend building the filter and pump into the quote and your conversations with them. If your client’s budget doesn’t permit adding a filter now, but they’re interested in adding one later, then have this conversation early and build this into your design. So, in other words, design the water feature with a filter and pump location with the idea the clients will add the equipment later. This protects you from callbacks while allowing you to create beautiful water bodies.
If you need help with equipment recommendations, feel free to get in contact with us. We provide free advice and design ideas and can supply the equipment too. We stock brands such as Messner, Matala, Vertex, Air-O-Lator, OWS etc. If you’re recommending pumps and filters to clients, keep in mind the equipment needed varies widely based on the type of waterbody you have. For instance, you’ll need to consider conditions such as: depth, water temperature, sunlight exposure, density of fish population, surface area etc to make an accurate assessment of the equipment needed. The main point being, you can recommend brands but specific motor sizes, kits etc need to be professionally specced out. As mentioned above, we can help here; we provide free advice and free designs and can also supply the equipment.
3) Building in pond equipment so it can’t be removed
Another common mistake landscapers make is to build in equipment so it cant be removed later. For instance, concreting in equipment or cabling. This becomes problematic to just about every client in this situation, it’s just a matter of when. Save your clients future headaches by designing your water feature filter and pump spaces to allow the equipment to be pulled out for maintenance or replacement with ease.
4) Using cheap builders liner as waterproofing
If you’re tempted to use black builders liner as a quick, cheap solution to waterproofing underlay, please think again. We’ve seen this tried many times and the results are never good. The thin, flimsy material tears very easily and breaks down in the sun very quickly, we’re talking weeks in summer. In the end, it just ends up leaking like a sieve. Do things right the first time around by using a liner like our EPDM liner. EPDM is a synthetic rubber that looks great in the wild and lasts for decades, never losing its look or elasticity.
5) Using concrete in ponds
If you plan on using concrete as the base of your pond, beware that when waterproofing, bubbling is a common problem. These bubbles can arise at the surface and cause parts of the concrete to peel off. This often means leaking and further damage. As a result, you may find your client calling you with complaints. These types of repair jobs are nightmares by the way. A better option in terms of long lasting and going without issues, meaning less callbacks from clients with pond problems, is using fiberglass. These ponds simply last and last. If you’re committed to going concrete, at a minimum we highly recommend investing in a top-notch sealant, something from a professional waterproofing company, not your run-of-the-mill hardware store. Better yet, get a sub-contractor to do the sealant job professionally for you. That way you can rest assured it’s done well.
6) Not considering the splash-factor when building any kind of water feature
If you’re designing a waterfall, an ornamental fountain, falling water of any kind, remember to consider the splash-factor. On paper, a water feature looks great but if not well considered, the reality of a too-powerful water feature in too-cramped a space is that the client simply turns the water feature off. We’ve seen this very thing in too many clients’ backyards. We see a waterfall and pump but it’s turned off. We don’t even bother asking why, we’ve heard the answer too many times; the water splashes everywhere and creates a mess. Our general rule of thumb is you want to have at least twice the width to the height. So if the fountain is 1m high, you want to have at least 2m either side of it as a “wet” zone.
7) Trying to DIY-build a pipe fountain
If you’re considering running a pipe along the bottom of a large waterbody–to act as a water fountain in the middle–you may want to consider a Floating Fountain instead. The reason being is that it’s difficult to get the pipe to stay in place with water running through it. Trust us, we’ve tried. The vertical pipe especially tends to move because of the force of the water. In most cases, the fountain ends up spraying on an angle and it looks a little silly. The other problem is when the water level drops, the pipe sticks out of the water and looks ugly.
Floating fountains are a better option as they rise and fall with the water and can be easily moved around. Our Matala Floating Fountains come with the choice of a 20m or 40m cable. Most fountains have cable runs of 10m or less. The fountain comes with an optional lighting kit. The kits are exceptionally easy to install. The fountain can be anchored to the dam floor or tied to an onshore star picket or pontoon. The equipment is also very easy to clean and maintain because you can simply pull it to you, rather than having to go to it, i.e. get into the water.