Fountains & Waterfalls

Sound is the real product

People think of a fountain as a visual element. In practice its biggest effect is acoustic: running water masks street and neighbour noise and changes how the space feels entirely. So deciding the sound you want comes before deciding the look — and fall height plus the surface the water lands on are what control it.

A high fall onto hard stone produces a strong sound that can be intrusive in a small space. A short fall over a stepped surface gives a light trickle. That difference is tuned during commissioning, with water actually running — not on paper.

The loop is closed — consumption is lower than people expect

The most common question is water use, with an assumption that a fountain consumes continuously. In fact water circulates in a closed loop: down into the basin, back to the pump, up again. The only real consumption is evaporation top-up.

That evaporation rises with heat and with designs that throw water into the air. A design with a direct fall loses less than a fountain with a high spray.

The balance tank nobody sees

It must be large enough that the pump never runs dry as the level drops through evaporation. A small tank means the pump reaches a dangerous state within days without a top-up — and running a pump dry destroys it.

Algae is a design matter, not a cleaning one

Warm water in sunlight is an ideal environment for algae. What reduces it: continuous simple filtration, periodic treatment, and a design that permits cleaning. A drain point at the base of the basin turns cleaning from laborious pumping into opening a valve — the difference between a basin that actually gets cleaned and one that gets neglected.

Electricity and water in contact

Every submerged fitting must be rated for continuous immersion, not merely "outdoor use". Low voltage is the standard for water features. The control panel goes somewhere dry and accessible — not buried beside the basin for appearance.