This isn't RE related at all, but I wanted to post a copy here in case it was of interest to anyone. I actually built it as a gift for my mom out of stuff her and dad already had laying around their property. We did end up buying a pond liner, some pipe fittings, and a chiropractor visit before it was done, but it was a fun summer project.
How to Build a Waterfall
This is what we were starting with. There was a previous rock garden/flower bed that had not received much attention in recent years. The rocks originated on the property, either left out from the excavation when the house was built or pulled from one of the creeks. You can see a hole where I had began to dig out for the our waterfall basin.
For our basin we used an old bathtub that was no longer in use. Anything that can hold water can be used. There are all kinds of formulas people use to determine what size pond you need at the bottom of the waterfall, but the most critical factor is that your basin holds more water than will be contained in your pump, plumbing, and waterfall when it's running. Beyond that, and keeping your pump covered with water, the sky is the limit. We used a bathtub because it incorporated a drain for wintertime storage, it fit the space, and it was free. To get rid of the annoying white glare, we covered it with scraps from our pond liner later in the process. You can see the beginnings of a stone wall across the front. Building a dry stone wall of any kind can be a real challenge, but the key is to be patient and keep flipping rocks over trying to get them to fit together. Eventually, if you have enough rocks, it will become something. The ditch to the left is for the drain plug, which we plumbed from the tub. We will place a rock in the hole to cover up the drain when it's not being accessed.
Water flows downhill. Keep that in mind when building a waterfall. Here you can see the original start of our waterfall. We dug out the center channel, and built walls on the side for water to flow down. However, this was not near a big enough drop or big enough walls for the rocks we were using. We ended up building the whole thing up almost 4ft taller with clay. We positioned our main rocks in the center from time to time, to make sure they would fit in the channel. Once the structure was the right size with walls on the sides that were several inches taller then the rocks we would place in the center, we covered the entire thing with a 14ft x 14ft pond liner. A thick EPDM rubber pond liner is recommended, however a miscommunication somewhere brought us a PVC pond liner, and we used it instead. After the pond liner is installed, you must be very careful in placing rocks on the liner in order to not puncture the liner. The largest rocks used in our waterfall were several hundred pounds each. We used a front end loader to assist in placement of these. Then we continued to stack and re-stack rocks until the waterfall and accompanying flower beds came into shape.
Here is the almost finished project. This is an aerial view from an upstairs window in the house right after it was finished. The waterfall is bigger than it appears, and it's a nice addition to the backyard.
I had always wanted to attempt a waterfall, so this was a learning experience for me, and a little way to pay my parents back for everything.
