Water Fountain Contractors

Water Features in Sydney

Every water features quote we write for Sydney starts on site, with photographs, levels and a walk of the full run. You cannot allow for coastal salt exposure on one side of the city and cracking clay on the other from a satellite image.

The water features we install around Sydney has to deal with reactive shale clay in the west, sandstone and sand through the coast and north and with the full spread of Sydney housing, from Victorian terrace to new release estate. Those two things between them explain most of what we recommend and most of what we advise against.

The honest starting point for water features in Sydney is that you are dealing with a very wide range of housing eras with different original boundary types. Everything we specify follows from working with that rather than pretending it is not there.

Every quote we write for Sydney comes from a site visit. Call 0492 879 796 and we will arrange one at a time that suits.

The Sydney Ground Conditions We Design For

Site conditions here run to everything from flat river plain to steep sandstone escarpment. Levels get set out and recorded before anything is ordered, because a change of grade halfway along a run is a design decision, not something to improvise around.

The practical constraint on most Sydney jobs is ground conditions that change completely between one side of the basin and the other. We work the materials route out before quoting, because a barrow run instead of a truck changes the program substantially.

One thing specific to this part of the greater Sydney basin is councils that each interpret the same state controls slightly differently. It is easy to miss on a first look and expensive to discover once work has started.

What We Specify and Why

There is no premium in over-specifying something that was never going to fail. We put the money where Sydney conditions actually attack the job, which is generally at ground level and at the fixings.

Material selection here is driven by exposure and by use. Once you allow for access constraints that vary from a wide western verge to an inner-west rear lane, the finish and the fixings decide the service life more than the substrate does.

• Electrical work for pumps and lighting is licensed work and must be carried out by a licensed electrician.
• Stone in constant wetting and drying cycles weathers differently from the same stone on a dry wall.
• Access to the pump and valves has to be designed in, otherwise maintenance means dismantling the feature.
• Recirculating systems still lose water to evaporation and wind, so a top up arrangement is part of the design.
• Still water in sun grows algae, so shade, planting or treatment has to be part of the plan.

Rules, Approvals and Local Controls

Height, position and appearance are the three things most often controlled. In Sydney, the relevant local council sets the local controls over the top of the state provisions, and forward of the building line is where they bite hardest.

State provisions set the framework and the relevant local council applies it locally. Where the two interact, the practical answer is to confirm your specific address rather than rely on a general rule.

The Way We Run a Sydney Project

We photograph the site before we start and again at completion. On a Sydney job that record settles most questions about what was there and what changed.

Services are located before excavation, every time. Around Sydney the older streets carry runs that are not where the plans say they are, and a strike is expensive for everyone.

• Stone and tile finishes
• Wall and spill water features
• Recirculating pump and filtration
• Electrical provision by a licensed electrician
• Lighting integrated into the feature
• Overflow and top up management

The Faults We See Most Often in Sydney

Owners in Sydney tend to call us at the point where patching has stopped working. By then the underlying issue is usually a pump undersized for the head it has to lift, and a repair only postpones it.

• No access to the pump without pulling the feature apart
• A pump undersized for the head it has to lift
• Water noise that is pleasant on a video and relentless in a courtyard
• A feature that leaks because it was rendered rather than tanked

The Water Features Formats We Build