Pool Waterfalls - Design Tips

To get the most natural look, it is important that pool waterfalls are located in an area where the existing elevation is higher than your pool.

For example, this might be where land is sloping down towards the pool.

Creating a waterfall at your pool in this manner will give it a natural appearance.

If you create a waterfall where the land is flat, you will have to build it up.

In this situation, it is difficult for waterfalls to appear natural.

Using large boulders rather than small ones mimicks nature in natural waterfalls. The water can fall over a beautiful boulder. It can also fall over a flat rock, where it looks like a sheet of water.

If you are installing a concrete pool and want a waterfall, a wonderful idea is to build up the back wall of the pool, face it with stone, and have the waterfall spill over the large boulder. This creates added drama and excitement due to the height of both the wall and the waterfall.

You can see here in this pool waterfall I designed that the back wall of the pool serves as a retaining wall also. It is faced with a beautiful stone that blends well with the boulders of the waterfall.

The height of the waterfall at the water's edge should be determined by the land behind it. It is very tempting to build a waterfall that is high, but how natural will it look? If the top of the waterfall is similar to the land behind it, the most natural picture will be created.

A swimming pool waterfall can be as low as 6" high. The height is endless, depending on the surroundings. The rock used for the waterfall should be large, at least 18" wide.... the larger the better. If you can bring in boulders that are 2' and larger it will look great.

Please also visit my page on waterfall designs, where I give some great tips on how to select and use various types of stone for a natural look.

The location of most pools are in the sun. However, if your pool waterfall happens to be in the shade, you will be lucky enough to be able to use moss rocks. These are rocks where moss had naturally grown on them. However, moss likes shade.

Pool waterfalls should have additional rocks or boulders placed creatively in the area to create the look of a natural formation. Often spaces are left between the rocks and plants placed in these spaces. Provide mostly groups of plants rather than singles. Some of the plants should grow over the rocks, like Blue Rug Juniper and Cotoneaster. A pretty flowering tree placed to the side completes the picture!

The point is that it was basically a group of boulders.There was an area that was formed out so that the water would run down this indentation right in the boulders.

Now I don't know what these "boulders" looked like in real life. I'm normally a purist, so instinctively I can't imagine how they would compare to real stone. But who knows?

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