Mr and Mrs E. visited our showroom looking for inspiration to complete an area that had been earmarked for a water feature at a previous time. The couple had a raised well that was overlooked by an impressive garden and was situated within the barbeque area. The builders who had constructed this feature had concreted a narrow slate feature into each corner of the well area, thus initially limiting the couple to a similar but larger feature as a centre piece, a matter that they had resigned themselves to.

However once Mrs E. had viewed our stock, she fell in love with the idea of a large white marble feature and with her liking of oriental style decor this Chinese stone fitted in perfectly with the theme of the garden. This created a problem however of how the marble feature stone would fit both physically and aesthetically between the slate structures.

After careful measurement of the display area we decided that the best way to approach the project would be to cut the slate pieces out and start again. During construction of the area the builder inserted a plastic tub for use as a reservoir, from this the water for this feature is re-circulated, so this just left a concrete area to the top of the tub surrounded by a lip of bricks to retain slate chippings, these were replaced by Japanese Black Pebbles. Once we had cut away the slate pieces , it left a clear area to fit the marble.

The water feature was drilled as always at our premises, this is because it is a lot easier to manoeuvre the feature stones with the handling equipment that we have at our disposal. Once drilled the stone is fitted with a flexible pipe inserted virtually to the top of the hole. Trilcot always thoroughly check our features once they have been bored to establish that the water will cascade properly and also ascertain the correct pump that will be required to create the desired effects. Mrs E. also wanted an internal light fitting into the feature. This gives a dazzling display in the dark that looks like a flame is coming out of the stone, and so this is also fitted at this stage.

Once the feature was ready for installation we delivered to site on the back of our pick-up truck. We have a tripod set up that is often used for handling stones on site; this is fitted with a block and tackle for lifting and lowering of the rocks. It’s a crude set up but is usually the most effective way of safely manoeuvring a feature in a garden environment. The truck was reversed to as close as possible to the well area and the feature raised to above the well. After the delicate operation is completed then a suitable pump is attached to the end of the hose, and submerged in the well. For this water feature we chose a 5000 litre per hour pump, this comes with a variable flow adjuster as standard that allows fine adjustments to the amount of water that is pumped through the feature

Now that all the component parts were in place the rock was lowered into place, the reservoir filled with water and the electric temporarily connected for testing. A qualified electrician should carry out the permanent connections. The harness was still attached to the water feature as there is inevitably an adjustment to the positioning, there were several in this case, but eventually the final resting position was agreed and the stone sited. Checks were made to ensure that the pump would be accessible for maintenance should it be needed, and once we were happy with this a mesh was placed over the reservoir opening to support the pebbles.

Contrasting pebbles are often the most visually effective against a feature rock and for this project we selected Black Japanese pebbles. These are natural beach pebbles that shine like they are polished when wet, so look stunning on a feature like this.To complete the display a small piece of Marble rock was added to the side of the feature that is splashed by the water cascading from the main feature, giving it a shiny appearance

Water used for these display are all contained within the reservoir and is constantly re-circulated, this means that the only water that is used is to fill the reservoir and the occasional top up.