Cutting Pavers and Brick

Wet or Dry Cutting?

The conversation always seems to come up when talking with other paver contractors, "Should we cut wet or dry?". 

You could ask this question for brick installation as well as natural stone patios.

Cutting stone or concrete makes a mess either way you look at it. Your choices are, working in a heavy dust cloud all day or taking extra precautions not to make a huge mess when you are wet cutting your pavers. 

The dust seems to be easier to clean up, as opposed to the mud like splatter of wet cutting residue that can quickly stain anything in comes into contact with. I still prefer to cut my stone wet, mainly because I would rather spend some extra clean up time if it means I can save my lungs.

That was until I got back from a recent Techo Block seminar. They showcased a dry cutting brick saw that was dust free! 

The IQ 360 was the saw they had on the floor and it was amazing! They were cutting pavers inside the showroom! It has a built in vacuum system that collects dust under the saw. Really a cool system.

I think I'm sold! 

How to Build a Pondless Waterfall

Pondless Waterfall Construction

Here is a quick guide to building a pondless or vanishing waterfall in your backyard or garden area. The Pondless waterfall is a great addition to any landscape design. Simple and low maintenance, yet guaranteed to be the focal point of your garden. 
We will be detailing a Filtrific Vanishing waterfall in this post. 
To read more about the difference between a Filtrific Vanishing Waterfall and the traditional Pondless Waterfall go Here.

As with any waterfall or landscape design, I always recommend doing a drawing or having a professional designer draw out a plan for your project area prior to construction of your water feature. This will allow you to plan for future planting or hardscaping and make sure you are satisfied with the location of the waterfall before construction begins. 

The first step, after you have decided on the right location for your waterfall, (considering things like, the view from your house or seating area, and making sure the water flows from a naturalistic starting point.) would be to size your system. 
Your system size is the total amount of water that will be circulating through the waterfall and any point. 
Using the Filtrific sizing chart is a very useful tool, and will help you figure out how much space you will need to hold the total volume of water in your feature. This is a very important part of the project. You will need approx. 3 times the volume of water, flowing trough the waterfall or stream, in your holding tank or pondless basin. Do not under estimate this step! I have seen many projects gone wrong by not having enough volume of water to run the system.

The Filtrific system has two basic components. The first is the filter box and pump housing. This box will hold your leaf catch baskets, pump, overflow port and automatic fill valve (if you choose to use an auto-fill).
The second component is the expansion tank. This is only needed if your system has a greater volume then the filter box can hold. (See sizing chart).

Once your design, location and system size are set, you are ready for excavation. 
Dig out an area to set your filter box, as well as, a rough excavation for the waterfalls and stream. Give yourself enough room in the waterfall excavation to account for placing boulders and stone. Always make sure your excavation is 'cupped' into your slope to give the feature a natural look. 

Here you can see the installation of the Filtrific filter box as well as the expansion tank. 

Make sure to set you box to the level of your finished grade for it to flow correctly. 

Here is the box installed with the plumbing roughed in. You can see the overflow, pump discharge and auto-fill lines ready to be backfilled.

The best part of the Filtrific system is the fact that you can install the filter box in a remote location away from the bottom of the waterfall. This allows for easy access to the pump and can aide in the overall ascetic view of the feature.

Now that your box is placed and your excavation is roughed in, you can begin the construction of the waterfall. The first step is laying your liner out. Measure your length and width of the excavation area to be sure you have enough liner.

We used a 45 mil EPDM rubber liner with a 9 ounce Geo-textile fabric underlayment for this system.
Be sure there are no rocks or roots under the fabric that may puncture the liner.

Now you can start placing stone. 

Starting at the bottom of the falls, set your stone and boulders on top of the liner, using extra caution not to damage the liner. 

At each step, or fall, make sure you stop and backfill behind the liner to achieve maximum flow of water over the stone. You can use mortar or waterfall foam behind the stone to aid in this process. 


Stone placement is a very artistic endeavor, it can be tedious, but is rather rewarding in the end. 

Work you way up the falls until you reach your desired height.  At the top of the falls you can choose to install a waterfall starter box or just run you pipe from the pump into the stream or falls.

After you are satisfied with the waterfall you can move back down to the bottom of the falls and install the fixed skimmer.
The fixed skimmer allows for a small pool of water to gather at the bottom of the feature while it is running. When the waterfall is turned off, the pool of water drains into the filter box, leaving no standing water in the feature. A real maintenance plus!

Now you are ready to install your pump and get your new waterfall flowing! Trim the edges of exposed liner, leaving approx. 8 inches around the edge to compensate for settling. 

Using the Filtrific system when installing a vanishing or pondless waterfall will make the maintenance on your system much easier then the traditional
pondless waterfall system. Do some research on the different types of waterfall systems, or give us a call for a free consultation.

Thanks for reading this post and enjoy your new Vanishing Waterfall!!

Jacob

Living Waters Landscaping

828-301-8017

Asheville Ponds

Asheville Ponds

Pond Maintenance, Pond Filtration and Pond Care Asheville, Nc

How a pond is maintained is just as important as how it is constructed. A pond that is constructed correctly, with the proper depth and filtration, will make the future maintenance much easier. This is something to consider when you are building a pond or having a pond built by a professional pond contractor. 

After the pond is built, having a professional pond maintenance contractor help you on a weekly or monthly basis is recommended, but not the only answer. If the pond is built with good filtration and aeration, you should be able to care for the system yourself, that is, if you have the time. 

An hour weekly is a good estimate of time you should expect to care for your pond. For a pond in Asheville, you should also expect to spend some extra time seasonally, with clean-outs or extra leaf removal.

The filtration system will need extra care in the Fall for sure.

Give us a call for a free pond maintenance consultation in the Asheville area.

Jacob

828-301-8017

Asheville Landscaping Water Features

Here is a pic of our current project. A fun pond and waterfall with a Flagstone path and bridge over the stream.

Gotta love landscaping in Asheville, lots of awesome pond and waterfall projects in these beautiful mountains!

The waterfall flows into a 6x12 pond under our clients deck.

Before

After

We also installed a full LED low voltage landscape and aquatic lighting system to this feature.

Jacob

Living Waters Landscaping

Asheville Landscape Contractors

Landscaping in Asheville

The summer season is here and we are installing some fun and beautiful landscapes in Asheville.
With the economy growing, now is the time to consider adding a water feature to your home.
Professional analysts say that adding a water feature to your home can increase the property value by 20%. This is not only a benefit to a potential buyer, but can benefit you as a homeowner who is planning on sticking around.
A simple pondless waterfall, like the one pictured above, brings a new peace to your existing yard and garden area. The soothing sounds of flowing water can help decrease neighborhood and local traffic noise, a great selling point for suburban houses.  
Not planning on selling? Adding a water feature can still increase the enjoyment of your existing garden space. 



I have noticed, especially here in the Asheville area, that the addition of a  simple waterfall or fountain, can create a special place for friends and family to gather and enjoy the outside garden together. Along with inviting dragonflies and humming birds, you can invite the sounds and atmosphere of the surrounding mountain streams to your back yard!

As a landscape contractor in Asheville, I invite you to give us a call for a free consultation.

Water Features, patios, landscaping, we do it all!

Call Jacob

831-566-8346

Modern Style Fountain in Asheville, NC

When you think of a fountain, many images come to mind. A three tiered concrete formal fountain maybe. Or the Bellagio in Vegas? 

Even a Lion's head spitting water into a small pond.

I have these same thoughts when I get call from clients asking me to build them a fountain. I wonder what they are thinking when they say 'fountain'.

I received an invitation to build a fountain for a client in Black Mountain, NC a couple weeks ago. His first concern was the noise of the nearby Interstate 40 in the background of this rather pristine mountain home.

 Side note: this property is the land formally known as Miami Mountain. A 1920's retreat with some of the best views of the Blue Ridge in the area.  

So, bringing the relaxing sound and 'white noise' of a fountain was crucial to this project.

The other aspect of this feature was to blend the rustic, mountain cottage feel with a modern look. The house was originally built in 1926, and my client has recently renovated it inside and out. He chose to modernize the house, while still allowing some of the original construction to show through. He left the original stone work on the fireplaces for example, but made the kitchen look like the Jetsons were in town!

It's a neat look and feel, and we decided to bring this design style outside to the fountain.

We had a custom steel box made and mounted it on a Galvanized pipe set in a concrete pier under the river rock. Then we faced the pipe with stone that we harvested off the property, giving the illusion that the box is balancing on the stone. 

With about 2500 gallons per hour flowing out of the box, it makes a great sound and creates a beautiful full sheet of water.

It was a small project, but it was fun to build.

Check back later for more fun projects by Living Waters. 

Asheville Landscaping: Before and After

Flagstone Patio and Walkway

Before

After

We installed this patio and walkway, with some simple landscaping, to bring a gathering place to this newly constructed log home for our clients.

This landscape features an Arizona Peach Flagstone patio and walkway, local accent boulders, 5000 sq ft of sod lawn and a custom vegetable garden area. We installed irrigation and drainage for the site also.

We had a great time installing this landscape for our clients, and they were very pleased with the end result. 

Walkway and Garden

Patio 

Before

After

Please feel free to contact us for a free landscape estimate in the Asheville area. 

Living Waters Landscaping

828-301-8017