crispin.proctor wrote

I am thinking of putting in a waterfall in my garden. Maybe more a
cascading stream than waterfall.
My intention is to have a head of about 1m with a fairly rapid drop
into a smallish pond.

I have two options: Buy a precast one or build my own.
Precast are rather costly for what you get and don't always look the
part.
Building your own - a challenge. Not one that I am afraid of though.
(Obviously not informed

My idea on building one is to build a steel framed box about 1m high
with a random taper ff each side.
Then to cover this with chicken wire and bend to shape. Once happy, I
can cover with some mortar and rocks.
As for the parts that will get wet, I thought of covering the concrete
with fibreglass and a layer of pebbles on top to hide the obvious.
The width of the water section will be around 500mm.

Does this sound do-able? Anyone tried this and had problems? Any
better ideas?

To get a preformed one will cost around £350 and not be exactly what I
want. My option looks like it'll come well below that. And more so, be
what I want.


A liner under the waterfall would be your best idea, whilst concrete may
seem a good idea it will be very difficult to make a permanent seal between
it and the rocks you will use, I'm sure you will want to use real rocks
otherwise a precast plastic/fibreglass fall would do just as well. So place
your chosen liner (Butyl is best) under the whole thing sloping towards and
into the pond and then build your fall on top of that, any leakage will then
just find it's way back into the pond.
Good luck, they are notorious for leakage problems, get covered in algae
very quickly and need constant maintenance. IMO they also usually look
absurd/contrived in a small pond.

--
Regards
Bob Hobden
17mls W. of London.UK