Setting up large self-contained fountain ornaments

Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 20/10/2006 - 1:38pm.

My wife and I recently bought a very expensive and extremely heavy ‘stone’ ornament recently for our patio consisting of three bowls in a tier topped with a small figure. It was delivered as a dismantled set of bowls and pedestals with some very rudimentary instructions in regard to setting it up and getting it going. After we struggled for what seemed an interminable nightmare, trying to get it up and running, the thing now seems all ‘cock-a-hoot’ with water shedding out the side of two of the bowls and running down the bottom. It seems to me that the ornament itself is distorted since despite starting on a level patio and then getting it all the bits to fit securely, the bowls themselves are not level.


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I always feel that retailers

Submitted by Peter May on Fri, 20/10/2006 - 1:48pm.

I always feel that retailers that sell these large ornaments should provide a free installation service. You probably have an ornament moulded out concrete, usually referred to a ‘reconstituted stone'. These are cast in moulds made of latex with some fairly rudimentary fibreglass support. The concrete is poured into the base of a unit and vibrated into place. The weight of it can fractionally distort it in a very slightly different way each time it is poured. If you have a team of people that are used to the small distortions of the individual units, they can easily deal with them during various stages of construction of the fountain ornament.

First of all you need ‘spare muscle’. If things don’t work out the first time it must not seem like too much effort to do it again and again if necessary and with little effort. You need at least two people moving the units while a third threads cables and tubing and adjust flow valves through the relevant holes.

Start from the base, ensuring everything is level as you go as far as you are able. Use old credit cards, loose change or small wedges of slate or stone to adjust the levels. Take level across bowls and across the tops of plinths.

If one outlet from a bowl fails to shed water as effectively as its neighbours on both sides then arm yourself with some of the paint the manufacturer uses on the ornament, or a felt tip pen of the same colour and some varnish, and a sharp angled file. With the file gently cut the groove, down which the water should flow, a little deeper. Then touch up the bare concrete. It seems radical on an expensive ornament, but if you manage to call in the suppliers to fix it, they will do something pretty much the same.


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