How to Build a Water Fountain With Cinder Blocks : Landscaping Designs & Ideas

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There are several different types of cinder blocks that you'll have to choose between before you set about building your water fountain. Build a water fountain with cinder blocks with help from a home design professional in this free video clip.

Expert: Thomas Lowe
Filmmaker: Naoto Abe

Series Description: How you go about landscaping your yard will play a large role in how your home is felt and perceived. Get information about landscaping designs and ideas with help from a home design professional in this free video series.

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Closed Caption:

hello Thomas Lowe here and I'm a
landscape designer in atlanta georgia
today I'll be giving you some tips on
making a fountain out of concrete blocks
what i have here are several different
types of concrete blocks
this is kat blocks and whether you're
making a small fountain as we're going
I'm going to show you how to do today or
larger fountain
I would really recommend using these cat
blocks you can use the larger cinder
blocks
cat blocks don't take up as much room
but you can use either one
so what I did was what I went to one of
the home centers and purchased several
cinder blocks actually purchased at six
of those and also purchased two cat
blocks and the fountain will actually go
here
this is a multifunctional was a bench
and a fountain in one and i'll show you
how to put this together
i highly recommend construction adhesive
this is fairly inexpensive you can get
this at the hardware stores home
improvement centers
this is super to hold this
the cinder blocks to these concrete
blocks now before you attempt this
design
this is one of my original designs i did
a couple years ago
you really need a flat surface to put
these own
you'll need a balcony or patio these are
great for urban designers patio designs
anywhere on a flat surface so first of
all choose a flat surface pick out
however many blocks you want in this
case the other six cinder blocks and to
cap blocks now also something that will
help make sure that it's almost
perfectly level are the little runners
that you put on the bottoms of our
chairs and furniture in your house you
can get those at the home improvement
centers
so I've cut these actually in
some triangle pieces but you actually
can buy some you have to cut and stick
these to the bottoms of the cinder block
and also it sort of creates a little bit
of shadow at the bottom and that helps
in the aesthetics so go ahead and
fastened first before you do anything
fast and all of these runners to the
bottom of your blocks with the exception
of the cat blocks the cat block seem to
be just a little bit longer than the
cinder blocks
now but i did this is already glued this
is this has been on here for a while
first of all you take this block and
then you turn it on the bottom and then
you take your construction adhesive and
don't put that construction adhesive
towards the end actually put it on the
inside right here and on the inside part
that way when you go to put these cinder
blocks on the on the end it doesn't lose
out here actually uses more on the
inside and you want to leave the cinder
block for at least a couple days
you know two or three days to really
cure dry well
so once that's done this becomes one
whole piece so just a quick review
put your runners on the bottom glue with
construction adhesive this cat blocks to
the cinder blocks and the next piece is
if you notice there is these
there's these grooves in the bottom of
your cinder block now make sure that
these grooves you have the groups
because some cinderblocks and always
have these groups will make sure they
have grooves in the bottom and what
happens then is you can get this metal
piece
that i purchased in a popular home
center that they're pretty popular you
can get this in the hardware department
but this is the middle piece and it fits
perfectly in the cut out of the cinder
blocks
now the reason for this is one is
aesthetics second reason is is it also
causes you to line up these blocks
almost perfect just really in in the
right form and now it's important to to
know how wide you want these concrete
blocks are part for aesthetics I kind of
left a little bit of a gap kind of
tapering the smaller gaps so i went
ahead and set up the blocks first and
then went back and put this piece and
this piece comes and I think anywhere
from four to six feet
some even longer than now so you can cut
this with a hacksaw
this is actually pretty tough metal you
can cut that with a hacksaw to fit
so once this pieces on here and this
locks together then what you do is you
come back
take these other pieces this piece just
goes right up there is this design I
happen want to keep them side by side
now for your your fountain for your
smaller fountains
what i did was i found a small plastic
garbage can at a retail center and you
may can go online and Google small
plastic garbage cans and what you want
to do is you want to make sure you get
the right size you want to measure the
distance between your cinder blocks here
to make sure you get the right size the
trashcan it can be a little bit smaller
if you can't find the right size and
then you can take the top off actually
used my hand pruners to cut the top out
here and then this actually going to be
your shell so that your water is stored
in here also you can go to a pond supply
company or one of the retail stores and
home improvement centers garden shops
and get a very small pump and you want
to get a tube that can go on the end
there's tubes that are sold a little
stick down in to hear that
that way you can get the water coming up
here and you don't have to have one but
in this case I put one on here and then
you have your plugin
so what you do is just the first you
take your pump and you put it in the
bottom of the fountain and then I took
the pic the plug in cord and I ran
through
yeah
so it fits right there now so that you
get this the right height
the comfortable height for you i
recommend taking a small bag of sand a
bag of flour put sand in a ziploc bag a
big ziploc bag or small one and fill the
sand the bag of sand accordingly so it
adjust and put this in the bottom of of
the area between the bottom of the small
liner and the open space to adjust the
height that that you want so then you go
ahead and just pull any slack
there's a little bit of an opening here
now
this plugin can run behind the bench
you may need to get an extension cord if
you don't have a plug-in closed by then
in the same
Home Improvement Center I found some
small pieces of sheet metal
you don't have to use these but I use
this for decoration purposes as well as
to keep some debris out of the the pond
little fountain
so this I i used some ten snips or heavy
duty scissors
you might can use garden hand pruners
but I think got tense tips works the
best and you can just been that at the
right with you want to form whatever
shape and then this is slides between
the liner in the cinder block
yeah
you have a little bit of a snug fit
there it goes
now you've got a little bit of a cover
that will sit on there and I cut it so
that the tube was still stick up through
the top and then you'll have the water
to shoot through here and if this is too
long you can adjust it by cutting this
tube or not even having a tube on here
and then you can also have a bench where
you can sit here you can put flower pots
on the side or you can sit
several people thus it's about two
people here or three maybe three
children
so I hope this is a given you some ideas
for small concrete found with cinder
blocks there's also some larger ones you
can build as well but just use your cat
block and your land
landscape adhesive my name is Thomas
Lowe and I'm a landscape designer in
atlanta georgia