Transform your retaining wall in a water feature with waterfall spillways from Aquascape. This easy upsell can make a big difference, and can help you win more jobs! Here's how to do it.

Waterfall Spillway Installation Steps

Follow this procedure to incorporate waterfall spillways from Aquascape into a retaining wall:

STEP 1: Excavate for the retention basin and the base of the wall. In this situation, the soil was soft and sandy, so they didn’t lay a sand bed.

STEP 2: Install the EPDM liner that will hold the water, sandwiched between layers of geotextile for protection.

STEP 3: Add 3 AquaBlox® and a pump vault. Here we need around 60 gallons of storage, so it won’t have to be filled up all the time. It is similar to a Aquascape Rainwater Harvesting System. 

STEP 4: Install a pump inside the pump vault. Here we chose the AquaSurge® 4000-8000 Adjustable Flow Pump from Aquascape. This device is equipped with a remote control that the homeowners can use to control the waterflow and adjust it to what they want, even from inside the house. It can produce between 4,000 and 8,000 gallons per hour. In this case, we will have 1,500 to 2,000 gallons per hour for each spillway.

STEP 5: Fill the basin with 1 to 3-inch round clean stone to lock it all together.

STEP 6: Build the wall. 

STEP 7: Integrate a waterfall spillway kit into the wall. Here we used 3  Aquascape 16" Stainless Steel Waterwall Spillway. It will give a nice sheet of water falling into the basin. Connect the pipes from the pump to them.

STEP 8 (OPTIONAL): Add LED lighting on the water fountain to illuminate the sheet of water as it comes out and cover the basin with decorative gravel.

Here’s the final result:

If the gravel is a bit dirty, the water will be murky, but after running it for a couple of days, it will clear up.

Maintenance

This is a very low maintenance outdoor fountain.  The open-top design allows debris to pass through and not get clogged. We also put a IonGen System G2 from Aquascape that will prevent algae formation.It is basically a self-maintaining unit.

Winter months

The pump can be accessed easily through the pump vault, so the homeowners will just have to pull it out. The spillways will drain by gravity, so the wall doesn’t have to be taken apart to pull them out. The pump vault cap is exposed and it can be taken off to get a visual inspection and be able to tell if they need to add water.

Finally, these waterfall spillways are meant to be enjoyed both visually and actively, so the kids and dog can play around it. They are also a great sound barrier in urban environments.

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