George and his wife were looking at a feature that would be a low maintenance option to replace an existing raised lily pond that was starting to get too much work to keep in good order. The couple visited our showroom and chose a large fossilised wood feature, with a sawn, polished top, this creates a surface that the water skims across creating an impressive finish. The stone was about 750mm high and weighed over 400kg so the large reservoir base would be required with the base concreting in to give the feature sufficient support.

    We agreed to fit the feature and the base which involves a couple of trips, the first to fit the base. When we got to the site the lily pond had been removed and this left a crater that we could use as a base, rubble was removed to a sufficient extent that we could place the template base in with a few inches extra around the sides so that a sufficient amount of concrete could be used to give a good support. Because the area was a drive anyway the ground was well hard cored and compacted anyway which added to the stability of the area. The template is smeared with washing up liquid to help when it comes to removing it, and then set in place. Concrete was poured around the base sides and into the cut out wings that provide the support when the reservoir is set in.

    While the base is setting the feature itself is drilled back at our factory. Fossilised wood creates stunning features that are very satisfying once completed, but it is incredibly hard material to cut and requires diamond drilling equipment and drilling methods that have taken several years to perfect. The method is something that we are keeping secret but once the feature has been drilled we fit the hose and test to make sure that the required effect will be achieved.

    After a drying off period we then took the drilled rock to site for fitting.The template is removed and the concrete that is left is cleaned of any rubble and the surrounding area was levelled and tidied up. The proper reservoir was then fitted in place. One of the advantages of having the feature on the drive was that we could just reverse our truck to above the reservoir and with the aid of our tripod lifting system we could hoist the rock into place without having to put it onto a trolley and manoeuvre into place, it also means that the tripod only needed setting up once which saved a bit of time and labour. Once the stone is hoisted free of the truck we could drive forward and lower the feature so that it was nearly in place.

      At this point we would normally place the top cover on and then lower the rock into place, however for this feature we wanted to create a circle from Rainbow Cobbles that would be the same diameter as two existing stone circles in the drive. This was achieved by using a string line attached to the centre of the reservoir and with the string at the same length as the radius of the we gradually placed cobbles at this distance working round to create the finished circle. Once the circle was nearly completed the reservoir cover was put in position and the feature rock lowered into place. The pump that we used for this water feature was a 2,500 litre per hour adjustable variety so this is attached to the hose on the feature and then when the reservoir is filled with water the pump was tested, and adjusted to the satisfactory output.

    Now that the water feature was set up correctly we could take the lifting equipment out of the way and leave the area clear to complete. The pump was connected to the proper power supply with an underground connection made by an electrician and once the cable was buried it meant that we could complete the circle of cobbles. The circle was then filled in with the customers choice of Japanese pebbles to finish the feature off. Red pebbles where chosen for this feature and the circle required a total of 450kg of stones to fill it sufficiently. After these had been laid and levelled the water feature was complete and we had another natural water feature completed with two very happy customers.

Finished Feature Click To Enlarge