How to make a fountain: 6 types

Decorating the site is a favorite pastime of dacha owners and homeowners. Beautiful flowerbeds, flower beds and even beds are a true decoration. However, nothing is as pleasing to the eye as water bodies and ponds surrounded by beautiful vegetation. And if there is a stream of water flowing from it, the corner turns into the best place of rest. If you still manage to make not only a fountain with your own hands, but also a beautiful backlight, not far to put swings or benches, in the evenings all the inhabitants will gather on this patch.

Device of the fountain

To make a fountain in the dacha does not need very large expenses. Of course, everything depends on the size of the reservoir and how you imagine it. According to the method of construction, fountains are of the closed and open type. It is about the cyclic nature of water use. The closed type uses the same volume of water, racing it around in a circle. The open type is new all the time. Garden and dacha fountains are made mainly closed type: their device is simpler and more economical. Of course, the water has to refill and periodically change – it evaporates and gets polluted, but still, the costs are not very large.

When arranging an open-type system will have to think about the system of water supply, control of its level, drainage and drainage. It is possible, of course, to use the fountain tank as a container for heating water before watering, and from the bowl to make a divider on the garden, but watering is not needed around the clock, and the fountain can work in this mode.

In the simplest version for the manufacture of a small-sized fountain requires some sealed container and a submersible pump. Tank can adapt any – a special plastic for the pond, barrel, old bathtub, basin, cut tire, covered with film, etc. With pumps is a little more complicated.

Fountain pumps

Pumps for fountains are sold special, with built-in filters. To make a fountain with your own hands was easier, you can buy such models. It is very easy to work with them: put in a container, fix it so that it does not move, pour water, carry out the starting manipulations (described in the instructions) and turn on.

Fountain pumps come in different capacities, raise the jet to different heights. Often in the set come interchangeable nozzles, nozzles that change the nature of the jet. They are powered by 220 V, there are models that work from solar panels. Made hermetically, so there will be no problems when connecting, step-down transformers are not needed. The only thing that will not interfere is a circuit breaker and RCD on the line to which the pump will be connected. This – just in case, to increase safety. The price of the smallest and low-power pump for the fountain – 25-30$. Productive models cost several hundred and more.

Use for the fountain can be any submersible pump. But it is necessary to buy or make a filter (you can make sand) and step-down transformer. Safety group of automatic and RCD on the line and here will not be superfluous. With this scheme is worth fiddling if you have an old pump, which at the moment is not used.

How to make without a pump

Is it possible to make a fountain without a pump? You can, but of the open type. For example, lead into the pond water pipe – central or supplying water from a well or well. Water coming out under pressure will give some height jet. By installing a tip on the pipe, we can change its shape. But with such a construction it is necessary to think of where to discharge the water. You can – back to the well or in the river, on the plot for irrigation, etc. Although with such an organization the pump is present, but it pumps water into the house, and the fountain is only one of the points of flow.

The second option is to put some container at a height, in it to supply water, and from there it is piped to the fountain below. To create a more or less decent height of the jet, the tank should be raised to 3 meters and higher. But the question remains: how to get the water there. Again with the help of a pump, but no longer submersible. They cost less, but require a filter. It will also need a pit, in which the equipment is installed. With the bowl of the fountain it connects a system of pipes.

How to make a waterfall read here.

Illumination of the fountain

In this area, everything became easier with the advent of LEDs. They are powered by 12 V or 24 V, which is much safer than the usual network. There are even solar-powered battery-powered lamps.

Backlighting can be done with waterproof LED strips or the same spotlights and lamps. For their power supply requires an adapter that converts the voltage of 220 V to 12 or 24 V, but sell them usually in the same place where the LEDs, so there should be no problem. Installation is simple: the spotlights have mounting brackets, the tape can be “shot” from a stapler, only brackets need to find more than the size of the tape: pierce it unnecessarily, so as not to break the seal.

Schemes of fountains of different configurations and photos of their design

Surely you know that the main component of the fountain is its bowl. In fact, it is the same pond, but having additional equipment – a pump. Pond can be made, at least a dozen different ways and some of them are described in a separate article, because how to make a bowl for the pool will not describe. Maximum attention will pay just to the organization of fountains and their decor.

A small fountain

The device requires a container and a pump. On the tube that comes from the pump, the decoration is put on. This can be slabs of stone, in which it is necessary to drill a screwdriver, with a diameter slightly larger than the diameter of the tube. These plates are strung one on top of the other like a children’s pyramid.

To avoid overflow of water should provide a system of drainage – just below the maximum level in the container to cut a pipe, the second edge of which should be taken out into the sewer, drainage system or in the garden. You can do it another way: around the bowl to arrange a collector of water – make a concrete trough or dig a plastic one. Collected water can also be discharged somewhere. Usually in closed systems, the problem is not in the overflow, but in the lack of water – it evaporates, but you can be insured.

Fountain with your own hands: photo report 1

And now a photo report of how the scheme is made a mini-fountain with their own hands. It turned out interesting.

To make this fountain needed:

• square plastic vase for flowers without holes;
• a small pump for the fountain;
• a plastic pipe 0.7 m long, diameter so that it could be put on the pump outlet;
• a bag of decorative pebbles;
• three bricks;
• red granite sawn into slabs.

From the tools – drilling machine to drill holes in the granite with a diameter slightly larger than the diameter of the pipe.

In the prepared hole we install the bowl, in it we put, closer to the edges, bricks. They are necessary for the stability of the structure and to reduce the amount of pebbles. They also serve as a support for the stone structure. Between the bricks we put a pump with a tube, pour water and check how it works.

In the slabs pre-drilled holes in the workshop. They should be located approximately in the center, so that the stones with their weight did not overturn the construction.

The first slab rests on the lying bricks, the rest are strung so that the center of gravity does not shift. Having laid the first one, we fill the remaining space with pebbles. After the last piece is laid, a mark is made on the pipe. The very last stone is removed, just below the mark the pipe is sawed off, then return the last piece to its place. When the water is turned on, it seems to run directly from the stone. Very unusual and uncomplicated.

Photo report 2

The next version of a small fountain is made according to the same principle, only instead of a pipe used a flexible hose, and instead of a stone – driftwood. The effect turned out just wonderful.

Everything is so clear that there is no need for comments. From the previous design differs only in the presence of a grid. This is to increase the volume of water: the tray has a small size.

Until you see, it is hard to imagine how simple it is to make amazingly beautiful things. About the pipes – it is better to use polyethylene pipes – they bend well and are not afraid of ultraviolet light.

How to make a fountain from a tire see in the video report.

Room or table

Mini-fountains are made on the same principle, only pumps are used very low-powered. Suitable even for aquariums, but without aeration. They even work almost inaudible. We will make a fountain in the Japanese style. In addition to the pump for this will need a small ceramic container. In our case – oval of fired clay. A piece of bamboo – about 70 cm long (bought in a flower store, sold as a support for curly plants), a bunch of live growing bamboo and some small pebbles. From all this we get such a beauty.

First of all, we saw a piece of bamboo into pieces of different lengths. It is hollow inside – these are natural pipes, which in addition do not rot for a long time. One of the sides should have an oblique cut, the second – even. Saw so that the longest piece near the evenly cut end has a “joint”. The bottom cut goes about 5 mm below this thickening. There is just a baffle on the inside, so it will be easy to slide this piece onto the pump outlet. It is difficult to cut it, but it was possible to cut a thin trunk with a metal blade.

In a bowl put a small pump, on it put the longest piece of bamboo – its length is about 35 cm. On the other side put a bundle of live bamboo, the space between them fill with pebbles.

Tie the two remaining pieces of dry bamboo to our “pipe”. You can use hemp rope. That’s it, made a mini-fountain with your own hands. It remains to pour water and turn on the pump.

According to the same principle, you can make other models. Now you understand how and it will not be difficult to change the design. A few photos for inspiration.

Another type, more traditional and familiar to us, uses almost the same idea and the same tools. The difference is in the decoration. You can take a large ceramic or even plastic pot. It is important only that it was without holes for drainage. Further – a matter of technique: divide it with a plastic partition into two or three zones, in one pour more soil and plant one of the moisture-loving plants.

The second part will be a reservoir. Only when organizing circulation, multistage filtration is required: very polluted water is obtained. Therefore, insert one after another glasses of filtering materials with different mesh – first – wire or plastic mesh, after – cloth with different mesh, and inside this structure – a small pump.

You can make with your own hands not only the composition of such a tabletop fountain, but also the pump. How? See in the video.

Pebble fountain

Very interesting design at the fountains with pebbles. Their bowl is disguised, so that it looks like a dry fountain, without a bowl. In fact, there is a bowl, but it is decorated with pebbles, which is laid on a grid that covers the tank.

In the dug excavation, some container is installed. Its volume and size should be pretty decent: to collect all the splashes, or at least most of them. In the tank put the pump, cover the top with a metal or plastic mesh with a fine mesh. It serves to protect against getting into the water of large contaminants, and on top of this fine-mesh mesh can be laid mesh of thick wire. This is if you will use pebbles. If you lay will be stone slabs, you can use boards or bars.

With pebbles, it is probably better to do the opposite: first as a basis to lay a mesh with a coarse mesh, on it – with a fine mesh. So you will not have to agonize with the choice of large pebbles, and the water will not get garbage.

If you include fantasy, you can come up with very interesting compositions on this basis. For example, one of the options with a garden watering can. If your garden is decorated in the classical style, the fountain from the watering can is unlikely to fit well, but in the country style – very even.

As you can see, the water is collected in the same vessel hidden under the pebbles, and from there a small pump is pumped into the watering can.

At the wall

This is the classic option – a small or large trickle of water runs from the wall, flowing into the bowl. As you may have guessed, there’s a pump in the bowl, feeding water through a pipe to the water outlet point. Everything is simple if you know how. It’s just a matter of implementation and decoration.

To pump on the pop-up, it is screwed to some heavy plate. Even to the sidewalk, just so long as the size fits. The body usually has appropriate holes for fastening, but when choosing it is worth paying attention to this.

If you plan to do something similar at the wall of the house or fence, take care of its waterproofing. Even if the water does not run down the wall, it will be splashed on it and the humidity will be high. At the very least, you need to dab it several times with a hydrophobic compound. Try to find one that does not greatly change the color of the surface.

The style of design can be different. At the upper bowl make a flat surface, from which the water flows down the wall. The effect is very interesting. It is important that the surface from which the water falls was mirror flat and absolutely horizontal.

Cascade fountain

Shimmering jets look very interesting. Fountains of this type are called cascades or cascading. With this organization, water overflows from one bowl to another. In the case of a dacha or garden fountain, you can come up with interesting forms. For example, a fountain of buckets, pails, kettles and even old garden carts.

The principle of organizing such a cascade is simple: several vessels or bowls, fixed above each other so that the water jet falls from one to the other. At the bottom is the most voluminous tank, and which is the pump. He feeds water through a hose to the topmost of the vessels.

How to make a bowl for a fountain

If you need a classic shape – a round, square or oval bowl, from which the water jet beats, it is easiest to find a suitable plastic tank. They are available in different shapes and volumes – from tens of liters to several tons. In terms of color, they come mostly in black and blue. Although it seems that for our purposes it is better to take a blue color, take into account that on such a background contaminants are more visible. So that your fountain does not seem like a swamp, clean such a bowl will have to clean often. From this point of view, it is more practical to take black – the water looks the same, and it is necessary to wash less often.

The selected tank can either be buried flush with the ground level, or leave a border. Most often, the sides are decorated with stone or pebbles. Depending on this, the depth of the excavation is chosen. It is dug to the size of a little more than the bowl.

About how and what you can decorate the site can be read here.

When the required depth is reached, remove all the stones, roots and snags, the bottom is leveled, tamped, poured sand, a layer of about 10 cm. It is well leveled and poured – to make it compacted. A bowl is placed on the prepared base, filled with water. In the gap between the walls of the bowl and the pit pour sand or soil. Sand – if the soil is clay, and soil – if normally draining. Having poured a small layer, it is compacted – carefully, with a pole or stake getting into the gap to be filled. But no matter how well you do not compact, be prepared for the fact that in a couple of weeks, will still have to pour: the ground will sit on a few centimeters.

You can do without a plastic bowl. There are two other options: make a tank of monolithic concrete. In this case, you can make a fountain with sides. The process is long and costly, and more about waterproofing must be bothered.

The cheapest option – dig a pit and lay it out with a film. In principle, any high-density polyethylene will do, but it will serve a year, maybe – two. Then it begins to leak water. More reliable in this regard, special films for swimming pools, but they cost a decent amount of money, but they can be used for years. The technology of making such a bowl for a fountain is depicted in the photo.

The first stage – digging the pit and leveling the walls. After the required shape and dimensions are achieved, the horizontal sites are leveled and filled with a layer of sand. It will protect the foil from possible damage.

The foil is placed in the prepared pit. Inside it should lie without tension, freely. Its edges are covered with soil, pressed with boulders. To prevent plant roots from sprouting through the film, it is not desirable to spread geotextile underneath. It is a non-woven fabric, very tear-resistant. It is used when laying highways, so that the ground is not crushed and trees do not sprout. So it will protect the fountain without difficulty.

Boulders are laid on the laid film. If the excavation is stepped, the boulders should lie on each step. When the design of the bowl is almost completed, a pump is placed. The bowl is filled with water and tested – and the bowl for leaks and the performance of the pump.

Actually, everything, if the electricity is connected, you can start the fountain.

Photo design ideas