"New" waterfall

[Lisak1]

We were having some persistent leaking issues with our waterfall - we could see it, but we couldn't move the rocks ourselves to actually address it. The "boys" who built this for their mom have all grown to the point where they would rather pay for someone to do the labor than attempt it themselves - can't say I blame them!

After several failed attempts we finally found a pro to come and help us out. The leak was on the right hand side - water had finally found a way to get behind those rocks and work its way along a fold in the liner and end up outside the pond. When we built this, the recommendation was to fill behind rocks with pea gravel. Now they recommend small cobbles, and having pulled this apart it's easy to see why. You want the water to be able to flow freely behind the rocks where it needs to. After ten years, the pea gravel had gotten clogged with sediment and was simply directly water out of the pond.

We're extremely happy with the work they did - they made some small changes to the problem side that made a huge difference. They were extremely careful while working around plants, they were creative, they brought a crew large enough to finish in a day (they also cleaned out the rain exchange while they were here) and the work they did kept the initial look and design of our DIY build. I was most happy to see grown men walking on the rocks before they turned it back on - they made sure every single rock was stable enough to walk on which is a big deal to me. We have grandkids who love to poke around looking for frogs. While they aren't supposed to walk on the falls, sometimes you just gotta follow the Big One!

If anyone in the Northern IL area is looking for a pond builder I would highly recommend this company. They are Certified Aquascape Contractors for those who are familiar with that program. They also do hardscape and landscape work - we have them coming back for some front yard garden work in the fall. PM me if you'd like the name.

Here's the "new" falls:

 

[j.w]

Looks great and they did a fine job!

 

[Rashad]

Is there a policy about not naming companies we've had good experiences with? I'd just put their name in the post so people can find it if they're searching.

 

[Lisak1]

Is there a policy about not naming companies we've had good experiences with? I'd just put their name in the post so people can find it if they're searching.

I don't think so, but what I'd rather not see is people who aren't involved with this forum hopping on just to bash a company. It happens far too often on the internet. If I put their name in the post it would be a simple google search to find them.

 

[Jhn]

Very nice looking waterfall, and it’s great that you found a reliable contractor that takes pride in their work to come fix the pond issue for you.

 

[GBBUDD]

Is there a policy about not naming companies we've had good experiences with? I'd just put their name in the post so people can find it if they're searching.

I agree @Lisak1 FREE ADVERTISING AND WORD OF MOUTH IN PRINT you can't get any better especially when its coming from the blog librarian

 

[Lisak1]

We gave them a great Google review, which is gold to the small guys. Lots of businesses will actually give you a discount if you write one for them. The internet can be a plus OR one big negative for a business, depending on the type of buzz they get.

 

[GBBUDD]

Well after seeing how you manipulate words and sentences. Id say they just got a huge business boost.

 

[cas]

What a nice job. You can't even tell they were there!

 

[Mmathis]

@Lisak1 Since they are an Aquascape affiliate, I wonder if they can give recommendations for businesses in other states? You know where I’m going with this…..

 

[Lisak1]

@Mmathis - contact Aquascape directly. They will give you a list of CACs (Certified Aquascape Contractors) in your area.

 

[Lisak1]

So we LOVED the changes to our waterfall so much that we decided to go all in and give them a free hand with a few other issues we've had over the years.

If you've followed my postings over the last few months, you'll know that we purchased a Matala filter to deal with the fine floating debris that had taken over the pond. One of the downsides in our pond design is that we have no fines filtration. Ideally the fine debris SHOULD sink to the bottom of the bog, but in our case, the fines were settling at the bottom of the rain exchange, which is also where the pump is. Anytime the water level would get low, we'd start circulating that fine debris again. One solution would be to remove the pump and pump out the bottom of the rain exchange (which these guys also did for us, by the way). But if you've followed my OTHER saga, it involved the difficulty we have removing and replacing the pump - very long story, but let me also add THEY FIXED THAT, TOO! So for future, we will be able to easily remove the pump, drop a sump down there and clean it out without the fear that we won't be able to get it back in the vault and connected.

However, as we were using the Matala filter and seeing how quickly it was catching the fine floating junk and removing it from the pond we realized that a more permanent solution would be adding a biofalls with filter mats to the system. We had a small spillway that fed a tiny waterfall that spilled into the pool that fed the big waterfall. It had shifted some over the years and needed to be spiffed up. So we thought "why not take out the spillway and install a biofalls there instead?" We talked to the pond guy and he was like 'oh heck yeah!" So we went for it.

So we went from this:

To this:

To THIS:

That first photo is a bit naked (haha) but it's a great view of what we had going on originally. That little spillway stream at the top was one of my favorite things - it really "grounded" the pond and made your mind go "oh! so THAT'S where the water comes from!" even though the majority was still coming from the bog. It also gave us a way to divert water from the bog when we wanted full flow, but wanted to slow the bog down. But over the years those rocks had kind of settled and sunk, so instead of a waterfall to a stream, we just had some leaning rocks and a stream. One way or the other it needed a facelift.

The completed waterfall is AMAZING. We have water flowing and dropping every which way. They changed the outlet from the bog so that feeds the left side of the falls and the biofalls feeds the pool. The picture really doesn't do it justice. In motion, it's incredible. And when we look at it, we can see that they really kept the foundation of the waterfall the same - just a few tweaks here and there and it's like magic happened!

What was really impressive to me was the care and caution they used around an already well established pond and landscape. They took the time to dig out plants and pot them up so they could replace them when they were done. While I wasn't all that concerned about that aspect - at this point in my gardening life, I know that everything grows back or can be replaced - but it did demonstrate the professionalism of their work. You look at that last picture and you can barely tell anything was upended. A week ago it was all liner dug up plants and rocks stacked everywhere!

Long story, but just another plug for finding the right people to do pond work. I'm tempted to post a photo that a big local nursery posted on social media of a landscape job they did for a customer that included a pond. Their hardscape work is impeccable - beautiful Unilock patio with seating walls and an outdoor fireplace... and an absolutely amateur looking pond. Volcano waterfall feeding a pond surrounded by a ring of stacked, round, softball sized boulders - it was almost a classic "what not to do" in pond building. Some people have the gift... others just don't. If someone tells you they can build you a pond, make sure you check out their work. With the push for every business to be on social media these days, it's not hard to find photos and see what they can do!

 

[GBBUDD]

Looks amazing !!! Do i see a little pool off tot he left above the pond . That's the stuff i love the most. BREAKING UP THE FLOW SORTA SPEAK INSTEAD OF A HARD PRIDICTABLE OUTLINE one that steps in or out without warning always look the best to me. Whoops just zoomed in and it's not a pool its top soil. but i think you get the drift. @Lisak1 had them restore your lights to didn't you? For the record anyone building there own or even having someone build it for you take lots of pics even the ones with the yard destroyed. "I enjoy those the most "

 

[Mmathis]

That’s amazing!

 

[Lisak1]

We did have them add lights. We're still working on balancing those - we're going to have them add a few more to the waterfall. With all the little drops and falls, we want them all lit up. They uplit a few of the trees in the garden and added lights to our pondless waterfall - which they also did a bit of work on. It's like we're all spiffed up over here!