1 Stop Indoor Fountains

Archive for the ‘Making One’ Category

Installing a wall fountain can be pretty easy, however you may want to hire professionals for the electrical portion of the job.

Generally, when you install a wall fountain, you will need two people.

Although it is not required, it is recommended that you install a GFI outlet in the wall directly behind the location of the placement of the fountain prior to installing the fountain.

You could hire an electrician in your area to install the GFI outlet for you. By hiring a professional, you will save yourself the trouble of trying to make the installation and hiding the cords.

Be sure to place the electrical outlet near the center of the fountain so that it is not directly behind either the basin or the hood of the fountain.

The electrical outlet should be placed behind the left most stone as you face the fountain on the wall for both double and triple panel fountains.

If you do decide to install an electrical outlet behind the fountain, it is a good idea to wire the fountain to a wall switch.

Wiring the fountain in this manner will allow you to easily turn your fountain on and off without having to reach behind the stone to pull out the plug.

If you do not want to have an electrical outlet installed specifically for the fountain, another option available to you is to simply disguise the cord by placing a plant or other décor in front of it.

You can install the fountain on almost any type of wall, including cinder block and metal stud walls. If you re installing a heavy wall fountain, you must mount the fountain directly into the stud, whether wood or metal.

Do not attempt to hang a heavy wall fountain from sheet rock or plaster. Instructions should be included with each of the fountains to help you through the installation process.

Required Tools:
The tools required will vary with each individual fountain. This is just a guide to provide information for your benefit. You should receive a set up guide, which will tell you what tools you will need, when the fountain arrives. The tools required to hang the wall fountain may include, but are not necessarily limited to the following:

* Phillips head screwdriver and standard screwdriver
* Slate tabletop fountains
* Cordless drill
* Tape measure
* Masking tape
* Stud finder
* Hammer
* Pencil
* Level

The further the water falls before it lands, the more energy it will have to dissipate, thus more splashing will occur.

Due to the fact that this section is about water, now may be the appropriate time for some comments about keeping the water in the bowl. Water falling into water creates some of the most pleasant sounds. The problem with this idea is that sound and splashing are often connected. You can minimize the problem of splashing. The design of the fountain is one factor in controlling the splashing.

The further the water falls before it lands, the more energy it will have to dissipate, thus more splashing will occur. It seems that water falling more than one and a half inches will result in splashing that is difficult to control. If the water is falling any less than one inch, the fountain is very quiet. The best design allows for the water to fall between one and one and a half inches. If your fountain is correctly designed and set up, it will be possible to keep the water level within the recommended range. As is often the case, there will be exceptions to this rule. Fountains that are made with animals that spit water from the beak from a distance of 18 inches or higher can be accommodated by adding splash guards.

The splash guards can be made out of a material like slate that will catch the splashes and deflect them back into the bowl. Without the splash guards, large wet spots would always be present when the fountain was running. Through the use of effective splash guards, not a drop of water will fly out of the fountain. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to add something to guard against splashing once you’ve discovered that your fountain splashes too much.

You can generally get the most sound out of your fountain, with the least amount of splashing, by correctly matching bowls to center supports to slate sets. It is generally not possible to prevent all splashing. Even the best designed fountains will occasionally spit out a random drop. These little drops can add up. If the water level in your fountain drops and you do not notice it, splashing may increase.

It is also possible that you will spill some water when filling the fountain. Because you may spill or you fountain may splash a bit, you should never put a fountain on a surface which cannot get wet. An antique wood table would not be a good place to put a fountain unless you have put a good coat of acrylic varnish on it in advance. It is best to make sure the fountain is on a trivet or some kind of stand to elevate it slightly from the tabletop. The extra height will allow air to circulate beneath the basin and will prevent condensation from wetting the tabletop. Do not place the fountain on delicate doilies.

Rock water fountains, whether faux or real are a hot trend in home decor and landscaping.

What You Will Need:

* A battery operated pump with ¼ tubing
* River rocks
* A shallow bowl, two to three inches deep
* Broken tile
* A small terra cotta pot

Creating the Fountain

You will need a water pump, which is the most expensive element at about $25. These pumps are available at craft stores.

You will need a micro pump which is battery operated. By choosing a battery operated pump, you will eliminate the concern over the cord showing.

You will need ¼ inch tubing. Be advised some kits come with ½ inch tubing so be sure to check. If you cannot find what you need at the craft store, check aquarium supply stores.

After you have purchased the correct pump, you will need to layer rocks. Look for river rocks that are smooth and flat, which are available at craft and floral stores. Place the rocks on the bottom of the shallow bowl.

Place the pump on the rocks.

Conceal the pump by placing a piece of broken tile over it.

Place more rocks on top of the tile and add another piece of tile.

Run tubing through the back of the terra cotta pot and set it on the top piece of the tile.

Cover the tubing with additional rocks.

Fill the fountain with water and turn on the pump.

Be sure that you do not run the pump without water.

A great addition to the look of any fountain is lights. For home use, most people prefer low voltage lights.

Sometimes though, you cannot get enough light out of your low voltage lights. You would do well to use a line voltage or 120 volts to light your fountain. As is the case with all electricity in contact with water, any lighting must be protected by a GFCI circuit interrupt.

These convenient lights can make it easy to add even more drama and beauty to your fountain. There is something that is just beautiful about light reflecting off water.

You could use LED or halogen pond lighting, submersible fountain lighting, and outdoor lights, as well as colored lenses to create that extra tough of character. You can also use indoor/outdoor transformers, which do not need to be plugged in inside of the house.

You can use these lights for both indoor and outdoor purposes.

You can make your fountain look brighter, clearer and more beautiful by using halogen lights. Turning the fountain into a shimmering waterscape of pure light is easy with the innovative design of halogen lights, which keeps the lighting in the water.

Halogen lights provide a bright uniform glow, which virtually eliminates shadows and hot spots. You can also install a dimmer onto the halogen light to get a better control of the brightness of the light.

Three main conditions that will modify or change the beam spread as well as the light intensity are depth, clarity and movement.

Depth the deeper the water, the more light will widen or spread. Lights are not recommended for fountains that are deeper than four feet.

The impact of the lighting will be greatly reduced or sacrificed altogether.

Clarity While dirty water will reduce the impact of the light dramatically, clean or clear water will produce maximum quantities of light.

The dirtier the water, the more wattage or tighter beam spread will be needed to see the impact of the light source and its effect.

Movement The top of the water acts as a lens. Water movement will distort or increase the beam spread. Clear lenses, or no movement, will allow the beam to remain more true or accurate. The more movement in the water, the larger the increase in spread, and the light movement will be constant.

Be sure not to fasten the light cover too tightly when you install your underwater lighting fixtures. Amateur installers make this mistake often because they want to be sure that no water will leak into the fixture. Fastening the light cover too tightly can actually do more harm than good because the gasket seals expand when heated by the light. The expansion may actually create a leak if the cover is fastened too tightly. Be sure to tighten the cover securely, but do not overdo it.

If you want to have more light in one area or if you want to light a larger area of your fountain, you can plug in two five watt halogen lights to one adaptor.

The lights are separated by a Y-cord so that they can be place in separate areas. If you choose double lights, they will typically come equipped with two finger lights and one adaptor.

In order to create more dramatic color in your fountain, you can use colored glass covers.

Several benefits and practical reasons exist to support the use of a double light instead of a single light. First, the double light can be used to create light in two separate parts of the fountain.

This fixture should be used when you want 10 watts of strong light in one area. Either use a 10 watt bulb in one socket and no bulb in the other socket, which you should cover with a glass tube, or one five watt bulb in each socket.

For all of the versatility that double lights offer, double light fixtures cost only a few dollars more then the single halogen light set.

The double light fixture is a good deal.

When you are creating a fountain, you need to know that each nozzle, spray ring or jet has a specific requirement.

You may think that any pump will due when you’re creating a fountain.

That is not at all correct. When you are creating a fountain, you need to know that each nozzle, spray ring or jet has a specific requirement. You need to know what result you want to achieve when you are sizing a pump.

Do you want a gentle trickle of water, or Niagara Falls? How high do you want the column of water to reach, six inches or perhaps six feet?

You could choose something as simple as the infinity, which is a complete pump, filter and nozzle. Your fountain may also have a more complex system of rings, jets and muzzles. When you are either replacing a fountain pump or creating a new one, you should be aware of a few terms. Head the maximum vertical lift of the pump. If you have a six-foot head, that means that the pump is capable of pumping water up to six feet high. You should be aware, though, that at six feet, the pump would be providing very little water, a gallons per hour around zero.

If you need your pump to pump something like 200 gallons per hour at 72 inches, you will likely need a 500 to 600 gallon per hour pump to do the job. You can use a “pump curve” to help determine the amount of water pumped to various heights.

GPH gallons per hour, generally rated at different heights

GPM gallons per minute, generally rated at different heights

Pump Curve This is the amount of water volume “curved” at various heights. A 500 gallon per hour pump, for instance, might pump 500 gallons per hour at a zero inch life, 350 gallons per hour at a 24 inch lift and so on.

Water Volume The water volume is controlled by a few factors. One factor is the size of the pump, which has been mentioned above. To determine how wide your tubing should be, you will measure in two ways: inside diameter (i.d.) and outside diameter (o.d.). Very thin i.d. tubing greatly reduces water flow.

After hooking up their 500 gallon per hour pump to ½ inch inside diameter tubing, many consumers are shocked to find that they are only getting what they consider to be a trickle of water. The most they will get under this circumstance is about 200 gallons per hour or so.

This set up restricts the flow too much. Before purchasing a pump, be sure to find out what size tubing is supposed to go with that particular pump. Another problem with setting up the pump is running the tubing too far in. Long lengths of tubing create resistance.

If the pump you are using calls for ½ inch i/d. tubing, for example, but you are running the tubing twenty feet from the pump, it’s a good idea to use ¾ inch tubing instead so as not to cut down too much on the flow.

The concept involved in creating a tabletop fountain is relatively simple.

There is a pump, which circulates water in a container, and a spout, which can be either hidden or visible, delivers the water into a pleasing scene.

The basic elements needed to create a table top fountain are: a small submersible pump, which you can find at a garden center or shops where aquariums are sold., a large bowl or another water tight container, something that will hide the pump while still allowing for water to circulate, rocks or marbles, flexible tubing that fits the pump, a small copper elbow to direct the water flow downward and water. To hide the pump, you could use an upside down plastic container, for example, with a hole cut in the bottom to allow the tubing to pass though and a hole cut in the side to allow water to return.

When creating your tabletop fountain, you need to take into consideration whether the fountain will be viewed from the side or from above. The bowl you choose for your fountain is important as well. You should match the bowl to the fountain as well as to the décor in your room.

You need to choose a bowl large enough to accommodate enough water to cover the pump. The bigger the bowl you chose, the more water it will hold, thus, you will need to fill it less. You will need to choose a bowl with a flat bottom. The inside bottom of the fountain should be wide enough to accommodate the pump and the first curve of the cord.

You will need to find something that will conceal the pump. In a large fountain, the pump must be protected from the weight of the rocks above it. You may be able to construct a den for the pump using rocks, but it is best to use an item such as an upside down clay pot or plastic container, either having a hole in the bottom. You could hide the pump using thin, wide rocks such as slate. Use the slate to create a shelf over the pump by resting it on a pile of rocks, or a large rock, placed on either side of the pump.

To build your container water feature, you will need to use rocks, or some other inert material. You need to use large rocks at the bottom. That way, when you have to clean the water feature, you can easily remove them and clean them. It’s a good idea to have some flat rocks available as well. You can use them to create level surfaces.

You need to use a submersible pump. A pump that has two speed settings is good if you can find one. Be sure to follow the directions carefully. Always use a grounded electrical outlet.

It is a good idea to assemble the bowl outside before you bring it indoors. You will need to move rocks around and adjust the spray, and you will want to do that where a little spraying water will not be an issue. It is possible that algae will begin to appear in your water feature. Algae will grow wherever it wants to. Add a teaspoon of liquid bleach to the water to slow the growth and spread of algae.

When you are unable to find one to fit your personality, or if you do not want to spend $150 to $300 to purchase one, you can make your own fountain.

During the last few years, the popularity of indoor fountains has grown considerably.

When you are unable to find one to fit your personality, or if you do not want to spend $150 to $300 to purchase one, you can make your own fountain. The technique to create an indoor fountain is very simple and costs under $40.

You can create several different versions of the fountain, but the foundation to all these fountains is basically the same.

What You’ll Need:

* A waterproof container to create the base of the fountain
* A submersible aquarium pump, which you can find at the fish store or garden center
* One half-inch diameter copper pipe
* A pipe cutter, which costs about $2.50 and is easy to use
* A silicone glue that dries clear
* Two elbow joints
* A reducer to go on top of the pump
* A t-bar
* A piece of copper
* Some rocks to add weight to the foundation and make it more sturdy

The first thing you will need to do to create your fountain is to place the pump into the container. Since the hole of the pump is smaller than the copper fittings, you will want to add the reducer now.

You will next put on the first arm of the copper foundation by applying some silicone to the outer edge of the pipe. The rest of this process is quite simple. Attach the pieces, one to the other, but before you put the top pipe in, you will need to pre-drill some holes by using a one eight inch drill bit.

These holes will allow for a perfect flow for the fountain. Be sure to remember that the size of the copper frame must fit into the container for the water to circulate properly.

Before you add the final arm of your fountain, you will need to be sure that the top part is aligned so that the holes face down. This will ensure that the water will flow into the container.

This last arm will be longer because it has the pump to elevate it. You will need to put the t-joint on now; the t-joint will help to secure it in the bottom. Next, measure the pipe to fit and cut it down.

The foundation for your fountain is now complete, although it may be a little unstable. You should now add some rocks to weight the fountain and give it some stability and to take up some space.

You can also fill the fountain with small river stones. The last step is to add water.

Once you know the basics of creating a fountain, you can use your creativity to design a number of looks. One unique way to add some color to your fountain is to use dried flowers.

You can make an arrangement and place it between two pieces of glass and wrap the outside edges with copper tape. Next, attach a copper wire loop to the top while you’re taping. Finally, hang it from the top pipe, and it will be ready to go.

You could also create a slate fountain. You will need to purchase a piece of slate from a tile store and, with either a tile cutter or a hammer, create a sculpture by cutting away or chiseling the slate.

Hang the sculpture from the frame of the fountain and glue it with some silicone glue.

Here’s an idea for you if you would like to create a fountain for the kitchen. Use a copper pan that you like to create the base. Next flatten some flatware with a hammer and suspend it from copper wire.

This fountain will look great in the kitchen. You could also use the same basic idea, just add skeleton keys purchased at an antique shop and attach them with the wire. This concept also creates a very nice look.

Another idea for the kitchen is to use a washboard. Purchase some eyehooks, attach some chains and put it in a galvanized bucket. This is also a great look for the kitchen for those of you who like antiques.

If you enjoy the calming sound of gently trickling water, creating your own indoor fountain can be a great project, even on a cold, snowy day.

It’s also a project that won’t require a lot of money.

Tabletop fountains are relatively inexpensive, very attractive, and, because they are generally used indoors, require little maintenance.

If you are interested in purchasing a fountain, but you are concerned about the cost or the amount of the space the fountain will require, you may find that table top fountains will suit your needs and desires. Tabletop fountains are relatively inexpensive, very attractive, and, because they are generally used indoors, require little maintenance.

Tabletop fountains are relatively small, but they are available in varying sizes and in many different styles. Some fountains are more Zen, implementing traditional Japanese designs. Some fountains are based on the American country décor, using wooden milk buckets. Other fountains are more eclectic and resemble postmodern art projects.

You can also create your own tabletop fountain design by visiting one of the number of websites that are available and offer step-by-step instruction. Anyone looking for a tabletop fountain can find, or create, exactly what they are looking for. Fountains remind us of our connection to nature. Tabletop fountains are no exception. They can be unique and elegant. Fountains can be great stress relievers, and they can add to the ambiance of your room. They can provide a bit of peace sitting right next to you on an end table.

You will want to give some thought to where you put your tabletop fountain since they are relatively small. Be sure to put it in a place that is out of the reach of children and where pets, children or others will not be able to knock it off the table. It is generally a good idea not to put a fountain by a computer, stereo or other electronic equipment.