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[W86]Water Features And Fountains

by Jeff Halper, Jef

When it comes to your swimming pool design, varied geometries, materials and plantings can be used to create the style that suits you—from the most dramatic play of water to the most fun playing in the water. Usually designed by a landscape architect who manages the construction and oversees all the details and nuances, swimming pools come in all shapes and sizes. A water work of art, a cocktail pool, an Olympic-sized pool or a water-park for children are just a few pool design examples.

A luxury swimming pool is a necessity for of any upscale home in Houston Texas. The pool design finishes off the home design because it is a logical extension of your indoor living space. When it comes time to sell your home, it is an expected amenity. Additionally, swimming pools are great for entertaining, formal or informal, adults or children. They provide healthful exercise; swimming has long been recognized as one of the kinder activities on joints and ligaments. In this area of the country, they provide a natural place to cool off during the long Houston summer season.

Issues to Consider

• Salt systems. There are pros and cons to this popular choice. Jeff Halper with Exterior Worlds says, “The main thing to remember is that you need to be aware of your surrounding material choices if you use a salt system. Salt has a corrosive effect and it can cause soft decking material to deteriorate.”

• Spas and outdoor water fountains. Swimming pools are an excellent place to work in a spa or an outdoor water fountain. For one thing, the maintenance of an additional body of water is completely eliminated by having both elements connected. Some of the necessary equipment for one water feature, such as the chlorinator, auto-fills for water, lights and filters, are redundant and therefore not needed.

• In today's market, you have a wide range of materials to choose from for your pool design. A short list of quality finishes entails:

1. Plaster. This category includes marcite, which hardens like concrete and seals the interior of the pool. Upgrades include popular brand names like Diamond Brite™ and 3M™ Colorquartz™, which are quartz finishes in a wide range of colors and textures. Another upgrade is exposed aggregate, a tumbled rock that is slightly larger than quartz. Pebble Tec® and River Rok are well-known brands.

2. The color of the plaster. Manufacturers now offer an array of colors for pool finishes. Or you can go with a more neutral palette that provides a timelessness and avoids a dated look when fashion changes.

3. Coping (the area that immediately surrounds the pool). In landscape design, coping merges the indoors with the outdoors. Popular choices are tile, stone and brick. Care should be taken to create a non-slippery surface in the immediate wet area. Also you will want to consider how your choice for coping material matches, contrasts and enhances the exterior of your home.

Bring In a Pro

Exterior Worlds, a landscape design and build company, brings a great deal of experience to the pool design process, including (but not limited to): relating the design to the rest of the landscape; pathways to and from the pool area; outdoor kitchens; proper pool lights and other landscape lighting; glare reduction (for example, you don't want the lights to shine onto dining terraces or the main patio area); excellent construction practices; tree preservation; drainage techniques that reduce the impact on trees and heighten the aesthetics of visible drains.

A big factor in hiring Exterior Worlds to handle your pool design is the overall vision and concern it has for the entire project. Pool contractors generally aren't concerned with the whole landscape design project and make common mistakes, like setting the pool elevations too high or too low and not respecting the home's architecture or the landscape architecture, which is critical. Exterior Worlds excels at working with a discriminating clientele and all their landscape design needs.

An extremely enjoyable hobby, model train building can definitely benefit from adding different features such as working bins or even water features. A water feature can be anything from creeks and streams to rivers or even a lake. There is no end to the amount of creativity you can use when it comes to using this technique to improve your model train layout.

You can make this sort of feature from many different materials. You could use something as simple as crumpled up tin foil with an ash tray or a bowl to create this look. All you have to do is to look for the shape you want to create and crumple the foil to fit this shape. You then just have to place your new "pond" on the train layout and maybe add a few touches of paint to make it look a bit more realistic. First you will need to disguise the edge of the pond with some "dirt" such as coffee grounds.

You can also use sand or little rocks to dress the edges up. Now you will just need to add the illusion of depth to the water feature. This can be accomplished by painting the inside with different acrylic colors. You should paint the inner parts deeper colors and the outer ones a lighter shade of blues and greens. This will help to vary the depth of the water. If you want to add any small islands you can do so by using rocks. Now all you have to do is to fill up the water feature with some of the clear acrylic cement. You can either spread it thin and flat or you can even make "waves" by pulling it up into small heaps.

If you are wanting to add more realism than this then you should start by getting pictures of a water feature that you would like to simulate. Get as many different ones as you can especially of the area surrounding the water. You should also look at the colors that are in the water so you can accurately match them. When you begin to build your new feature you should keep in mind that coffee grounds are perfect for simulating the dirt that surrounds lakes. You can also simulate gravels and rocks by using small pebbles.

If you are wanting to represent boulders or islands then you can use big rocks. After you know where on your train layout that you will be placing your feature. You then should decide what sort of feature it is going to be. It could be a pond, a lake, a beach front or more. No matter which it is you will need to first lay the course out on your display. As soon as this is done then you can begin to paint it and add coffee grounds or sand.

Once you get all the parts into place you can begin running your "water" by pouring acrylic floor wax. Use it as deep as you need it but before you decide to create your simulated waves you will need to allow the wax to set a bit. This will begin you down the road to making award winning water features, enjoy!

Article Source : Water Garden

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Both Jeff Halper & Victor Epand are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.

Jeff Halper has sinced written about articles on various topics from Gardening, Swimming Pool and Gardening. Jeff Halper is passionate for Landscaping and wants to share infomation about that passion. At you can read more about. Jeff Halper's top article generates over 18100 views. to your Favourites.

Victor Epand has sinced written about articles on various topics from Shopping, Trucks and Interest. Victor Epand is an expert consultant for model cars, model trains, and model trucks. You will find excellent hobbying and trading resources here for