Guide to Building a Container Fountain: A Nice Weekend Craft Project

Building a container fountain can be a fun project, and can be something that could be enjoyed by a father/son or mother/daughter or any combination as a way to spend some time together on a weekend and build a project the whole family can enjoy. Someone who is handy enough could also build custom container waterfalls for sale at yard sales, flea markets, etc. or to just give as gifts at Christmas.

So let's start off by saying the first step in this process is to think about the space in which you have to place your container fountain, and the theme you want to have for your fountain. You also need to plan for electricity for the pump. Is there power near enough to where you want to place your pump? Now that we have that out of the way, let's take a look at the rest of the process to get your fountain built. Choosing your container should be a part of the theme process. Will you be using an old pot, a metal container, something that has seams that the water might leak out of, etc? It needs to be watertight, and if it is not, a coat of acrylic masonry sealer or epoxy paint will do the job. Once you've got your container all ready to go, we need to select a pump that will fit into the container and place a few rocks, or other solid item that fits with your theme, in place to hold the pump stable.

Add a plant, rocks or whatever other items fit the theme you have chosen into the container and arrange them as you would like. Remember, you can change your arrangement at any time once you've installed the fountain head and see how the water flows over your decorative items. Next we'll install the fountain. You'll run clear tubing from the pump to the fountain head (which could be as simple as a piece of bamboo and the tube running up the hollow center) and secure it in place using epoxy or other method (depending on what you're using as a fountain head). Once you have the pump, decorative items, fountain head and final finishing decorative items n place, you're ready to add water and test. You'll want to look for leaks in seams, enough water in the container to allow water to flow at the rate you want or any obstructions to the tubing (maybe one of the rocks is laying on a tube and restricting water flow).

Now it's simply time to just sit back and enjoy your water masterpiece!