Any tricks for getting the water to release off wqterfall rocks?

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I should have asked about this weeks ago.

Anyone have any good tricks for getting water to come off the edge of river rocks instead of drooling around underneath?

I've tried cutting a small ledge with a rock saw right under the lip but that doesn't seem to help much.
 

addy1

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Telkwa said:
I should have asked about this weeks ago.

Anyone have any good tricks for getting water to come off the edge of river rocks instead of drooling around underneath?

I've tried cutting a small ledge with a rock saw right under the lip but that doesn't seem to help much.

If you mean the round river rocks, they will just drool. It is best if you use a flat rock tipped forward. The water will run off the edge.
 
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I placed a piece of flagstone that is cantilevering over the wall of rocks so it has height when it falls into the pond. Also need a nice flow as stated.
 

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hewhoisatpeace said:
Waterfall foam is the answer you're seeking.

The foam will keep the water from going behind the rocks, but if the rocks are round, the water will still just drool over the rock on the way down. It won't "fall".

We have flat and round rocks in our water falls, even with a trickle flow it falls off the flat rocks, drools down the round rocks.
 
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Hey, guys & gals, thanks for the replies. I'm armed and ready with waterfall foam for leakage behind the rocks. It's the leading edge, the one you can see, that I was messing with yesterday and not having much luck. I set up a test bench on some wood steps and was trying to get the water to "release" off the leading edge.

I could kick myself. I've been worrying about this all during construction, but just kept putting it off because I had bigger worries. Now fall's coming, I want to be done with this danged project, and I'm a little burned out on trying to solve or at least muddle thru all the technical hurdles.

Canting the rock so that the water built up some speed seemed to help a little. And it looks like you can go around the problem with lots of pump. We don't have lots of pump.

Whenever I saw a picture of a nice cascade that used all river rock except for the piece of flagstone right where the water went over, I used to think "that looks out of place". I'm beginning to understand why it's done so often
 

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See if you can find a nice flat river rock! use it for your waterfall. Just put foam on the up side to make the water go over it and not under.

I have a few river rocks that broke, are flat and would cascade the way you want.
 

kedwin

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Flowing water will be the good solution for this problem and I agree with the users information and its good knowledge sharing.
 

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Re: Any tricks for getting the water to release off waterfall rocks?

Like Addy said you really need a flat piece of stone with a relatively square edge for your waterfall to work right, go to your local garden/landscape business like I did and find you a piece of flat stone that fits,
 

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lauraleellbp said:
I have nothing useful to contribute, I'm just LOLing at the visual of drooling rocks... good thing it's just water not baby food... :eek:


laughing, no kidding!

Telkwa, In my multiple water falls, with just a garden hose flow (we are not pond plumbed yet) I have flow off the ends of the rocks.
As I stacked rocks, any that were skinny and flat were put to the side. I used those as the top rock of the water fall, slightly tipped down and the water does a nice drop off the end.

Depending on which water fall I am speaking of some have the water drop right into the small pond below, some drop onto rocks below. I did foam the rocks, which keeps the water on top of those rocks.
 
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"Drooling" seemed like the most appropriate term for the half-vast way the water would curl way underneath before releasing.

I'm not going to install a huge pump just to overpower the drool effect. We've spent years reducing our household electric consumption. We're ecologists first. Ponding is down the list a ways.

addy, we have access to lots of river rock and can find fairly large skipper type stones. Since I geared up for some masonry work to get to this point I also have a 4.5" grinder with diamond wheel and a 7" diamond wheel for our worm-drive Skilsaw. So I could manipulate skipper rocks to fit together, or fit tightly into corners, or what have you. Do you have any pics of your falls?

I think I'll experiment some more this winter, and maybe leave the falls unfinished.

I'm also thinking about making some concrete forms. The idea here is to mimic something I saw all over the place in San Jose CA during the 60's and 70's. Seems like everyone had the little concrete bowls in their yards, going for the Japanese gardening look. The bowls had a pitcher spout molded into them. The spout tilted downward to make the water speed up, and they had a sharp lip on the underside to help the water release. I'm thinking that they might have even been more effective after a thin layer of slippery algae formed.

All a person would need is some scraps of plywood, some sandy soil to use as a mold bed, and a few sacks of Quikcrete. The first few might be duds, but I think you'd learn quickly. Several years ago I made some bowls for a very small pond. They were amateurish looking, but they worked and they've lasted for years without cracking/leaking. I've also made some bird baths by just scraping out a spot in the sand, pouring some mud with a little bit of chicken wire thrown in, then gently washing the cement as it's starting to cure to expose some of the aggregate. The bird baths have also held up for years.
 

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