Anybody built a backyard waterfall?

[djheater]

I built up an area with dirt that will be the main mound of the falls and I have a few questions about how best to proceed. The falls will be about 3'h by 4'w (not all of that has to be water, I'm thinking some plants in there too.

Should I buy a prebuilt pond structure and bury it, or just excavate and use a liner?
I've seen pond liners from 3mil to 45 mil thick? What should I get?
Is there a good online site for supplies?
How big of a pump should I get?

 

[nakedfrog]

Now there's an intriguing idea.

 

[KMc]

When I first read the title, I thought it said "backward" waterfall. Now THAT would be a challenge!

 

[lightpants]

You can buy roofing rubber and use that as a pond liner. I think it will save you some cash. That is what my neighbor did. Then he threw some feeder goldfish in there. Now, after a few years, some of them are 6-8 inches long.

 

[iamwiz82]

My Dad built a pond and waterfall in his backyard. He used thinner plastic for years until he found some thick rubber material at HD. I'm not sure how thick it is in mils, but I would say around 40 or so.

His is big enough that he leaves the fish in there year round and they survive through the winter. His pump is fairly small, as well. No bigger than a stack of 6 DVD cases. From the pump a small tube runs up to the top of the rock waterfall.

 

[MrWizzard]

Are you wanting one because of the sound of natural running water or you just want a waterfall?

 

[TheTony]

Originally posted by: KMc
When I first read the title, I thought it said "backward" waterfall. Now THAT would be a challenge!

A fountain?

 

[James Bond]

My parents did this at our old house.
The dug the area for the "stream", which trickled down about 10 feet of random slabs/rocks. There were larger rocks on the sides, which sort of resembled walls. There was one large slab at the bottom of the stream area, which was on top of a large boulder. Down below all of this, with about a 3' drop off, was the pool which was probably about 10 feet in diameter and about 4 feet deep.

They had some type of lining under all of it, and smaller pebbles and rocks where the water went through.

It was a great idea, but it took them FOREVER to do, and can be a real hassle some times. A lot of plants start growing in it, and there were tons of frogs and stuff (and we don't really even have frogs in my area usually), and on the motor broke one time which was a real hassle.

 

[djheater]

Originally posted by: MrWizzard
Are you wanting one because of the sound of natural running water or you just want a waterfall?

Yes.

 

[KMc]

Originally posted by: TheTony

Originally posted by: KMc
When I first read the title, I thought it said "backward" waterfall. Now THAT would be a challenge!

A fountain?

Nah, that just shoots water up and then it falls back down to the same level it started at, or lower. A backward waterfall would have to shoot it straight up to a certain height and be collected at that height in some sort of reservoir.

Wait, maybe that would be an upside-down waterfall....

 

[purbeast0]

Originally posted by: djheater

Originally posted by: MrWizzard
Are you wanting one because of the sound of natural running water or you just want a waterfall?

Yes.

lol nice answer to a question that wasn't yes or no.

 

[BrokenVisage]

Originally posted by: purbeast0

Originally posted by: djheater

Originally posted by: MrWizzard
Are you wanting one because of the sound of natural running water or you just want a waterfall?

Yes.

lol nice answer to a question that wasn't yes or no.

LOL

 

[Sinsear]

Originally posted by: MrWizzard
Are you wanting one because of the sound of natural running water or you just want a waterfall?

Who doesn't want a waterfall?

I do however think it would be a PITA to maintain and therefore not worth the hassle.

 

[MrWizzard]

Originally posted by: djheater

Originally posted by: MrWizzard
Are you wanting one because of the sound of natural running water or you just want a waterfall?

Yes.

We used to have a waterfall, but the guy who did it messed it up looked very unnatural and used a pool pump to power it. Way to loud. We redid it by a guy who was a little more specialized. Ill try to get some pictures for you. It runs 24/7 and sounds pretty good. Now it's more like a little stream/ cascade.

 

[Slick5150]

I just finished building a pond and waterfall in my backyard. Definitely don't use those plastic preform ponds. You'll never be able to dig the hole the exact size which will cause them to warp over time and potentially crack. Just get a liner and dig the hole whatever shape/size you want.

If you want water covering the entire 4' width of the waterfall, you're going to need a pump with a fairly high GPH. Maybe in the 1000-1500 range.

 

[crumpet19]

my dad and I built his:
cut a 55 gallon steel drum in half vertically. Take a half, line it with thick plastic and bury it to create kind of a trough in the ground. put a few river rocks in the bottom to hold the plastic down and cover a submersible water pump. stack your favorite flat rocks on one side of it and run the water line from the pump to the top of the rocks. Position the line and rocks so that water runs down into the trough. landscape accordingly for desired decor. -thats the basic gist of it anyway. It wasnt a hard project -it only took about a day once we had all the stuff piled in the garage.

 

[Howard]

45 mil EPDM liner'll get you started. It's also fairly common in 60 mil.

 

[MrWizzard]

Here are the pictures. I was in a hurry so they are not that good. Also pond is being cleaned up/worked on plant wise right now. We have a new dog that likes to chew the plants up/unroot them.


This is the pump we use, it's wisper quite and is plenty for both flows.

Almost full pond view

Cascade 1

Cascade 1 close

Cascade 2

Close up of cascade 1, where the water comes out.

This setup makes a nice sound and is not to loud, like a little stream.
We used liner from a hardware store, you can buy it in large roles.

EDIT: Links Fixed

 

[IGBT]

..home depot has plans and kits. Don't make a mess of it. Get proven plans and materials.