BUILDING FOUNTAINS AND PONDS - Garden
Pools and Fountain 6
If a drain is installed, it should
be arranged so that it will serve
also as an overflow outlet. An overflow
may seem unnecessary in a
pool where the water is put in with a
hose, but it prevents flooding
of the pool either by an unwatched hose
or by heavy rains. A simple
method of combining the drain and the
overflow. The overflow pipe is fitted
at its upper end with a screen, and
is threaded at its other end. The threads
screw into a standard pipe
nipple which is fixed in the concrete
of the pool bottom. A brass
pipe and nipple are used to avoid trouble
with rust. When the pipe
is in place, excess water enters its
tip end and flows away; when it
is unscrewed and lifted out of the fitting,
the pool drains completely. When a constantly
flowing supply of water is available
as
from a spring or brook, advantage can
be taken of this asset to make
a fountain in association with the pool.
Fountain nozzles made of brass
or bronze can be obtained from some plumbing
supply houses. Less
durable ones can be made at home by drilling
a 1/4 in. or smaller hole in a standard
pipe cap. Of course no nozzle is required
when
the fountain is made in this manner.
In this method
of fountain construction, the main point
to watch out for is level
setting of the lips over which the water
flows. Sometimes a fountain
is not desired even though there is a
good supply of flowing water.
In such cases the inlet is placed below
the surface of the pool. When water flows
steadily into a pool, an outlet must
be provided that will take a steady flow.
Dry wells are not adequate in
many soils; but in some soils, such as
well-drained open gravels, they
will absorb small flows indefinitely.
Usually, it is necessary to run
the outlet to a brook or other natural
drainage feature, or to an
artificial one such as a storm sewer.
It should not be run into a
septic tank or a municipal sanitary sewer.
Even with a steady flow of
water, it is well to plan the pool plumbing
so that the pool can be
emptied easily for inspection and cleaning.
A variation which does away with the
need for unscrew-
ing a pipe. When the valve is closed,
the
water in the pool is maintained at a
level which corresponds to the
top of the buried overflow loop, but
when the valve is opened,
the water flows through the bottom of
the loop instead and the pool
drains. Fountains can be made with very
small supplies of flowing
water; in fact a fountain consisting
of a series of basins is
of some interest if the water only drips
from basin to basin. However,
even such a small flow is prohibitively
costly if it must be purchased
at the rates prevailing in many communities
for metered water. A
few homeowners who want fountains but
who have no spring to
feed them get around the difficulty by
installing a small electric
pumping system and circulating the water
over and over.
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