BUILDING FOUNTAINS AND PONDS - Garden
Pools and Fountain 4
Pool materials.
The majority of pools are made of poured
concrete or of poured concrete combined
with stone laid up in
mortar. Often the pool is not lined with
stone but is
constructed with a stone edge, or coping,
which is based on a cast-in-place concrete
curb.
Some pools have been made entirely
of stone set in mortar, but it is difficult
to obtain a watertight bottom with this
method of construction. A homeowner who
is inclined, nevertheless, to attempt
to build a pool this way should plan
to paint it on the inside with an asphalt
waterproofing compound.
Unfortunately, the waterproofing material
will completely conceal
the beauty of the stone. An unusual method
of construction but one which has much
to recommend: The pool is lined simply
with a layer of clean, fine clay which
is well mixed with water
(puddled) and applied while it is plastic.
After the clay lining is
constructed, the stone lining is laid
up without mortar. A clay-lined
pool will crack if it is allowed to dry
out and also may be cracked
by frost in cold weather, but repairs
are easily made.
Excellent small pools, even those with
very irregular shapes,
can be made with metal basins. The most
adaptable material in most
instances is lead. Soft lead weighing
about 4 pounds to the square
foot and being about 1/16 in. thick is
purchased in large sheets. The
sheets are cut, shaped, and joined on
the job. Sheet copper of the
kind which is so widely used for flashings
around dwelling house
chimneys is sometimes used, especially
for small pools and the
basins of fountains. Some waters will
react to it to form substances
which are toxic to fish, therefore it
should not be used to line a
pool in which fish are kept. Swimming
pools are sometimes made of heavy gauge
sheet steel
and many thousands of underground tanks
have been made of the
material; hence, even though it does
rust, there is no doubt about its
lasting long enough to justify its use
in small pools. However, it is
a comparatively difficult material to
shape without heavy tools, and
also it should be joined by welding.
Occasionally a homeowner who
is able to get a large steel tank of
suitable shape, which has served
out its original purpose and has been
scrapped, has it cut down to
make a basin for a garden pool. More
often, garden pools are made
of large cast-iron kettles which can
be purchased every now and
then at farm auctions. Both sheet steel
and cast iron must be coated
with a heavy paint such as an asphaltic
paint to prevent discoloration
of the water by rust.
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