Any retaining wall ideas for waterfall??

[y2kdejesus]

Hello everyone,
I'm getting ready to build the waterfall to the pond. I have never done anything like this before. I have no walls to support the waterfall so I have to find a way of building up a waterfall. I have some river rock that I have collected along the way and maybe I could use those although I dont have that much of it and was thinking of saving it for the actual shaping of the inside of waterfall itself. As you can see I started stacking up the rocks one on top of each other but it will involve mortor/cement to keep them up together from falling over. I was thinking I could build the retaining wall to the waterfall out of those pre-made concrete retaining wall blocks they sell at lowes/home depot. A third idea was to save some money on having to buy a significant amounts of concrete blocks and just rig up a piece of OSB/plywood for the side walls and anchoring them down in place with rebar or something like that. The blocks in the background with the piece of wood is where the stock tank is going to be placed on top. Can anyone give some suggestions at this stage. Is anyone else at this point in their pond maybe can help out. I am very excited to move on and seeing something of a waterfall come together. thnxs

 

[DrDave]

Go here to see what I did;
http://drdaveskoi.tripod.com/html/doc_bio_filter.html

 

[DrCase]

All 3 of my water falls are made of blocks & mortor
then i face them with rock

 

[y2kdejesus]

Any pics of them DrCase......thanks Drs!

 

[koiguy1969]

my waterfall is mounded dirt around my filter and covered in liner and large stone.. plenty of pix in the photography section

 

[y2kdejesus]

It's all clear now, it will be block and mortor for sure. Sounds and looks like the safest and best thing to use for the waterfall construction. I just have to make sure I level as I go and probably rebar and fill in with some cement/dirt filler. The wall is only going to be 4' high at best then work down towards the pond to about 1' down so not to much to back fill into blocks. Thanks everyone!

 

[aviator79]

I made a huge block of concrete with a form I created. I will rock vineer this to look like rocks stacked up.

 

[FredrikAnderson]

I just used 2 really large boulders to make my falls. I filled in and stacked on some more smaller rocks to make it all look right. there is no exposure to the back side of the rocks where my filter is so I didn't have to worry about hiding it however. I got the boulders on Craigslist but they were not to much fun to move. Very possible however with a hand cart. Here are some pictures. If you want to try something like this I can give you some more info.

 

[y2kdejesus]

Aviator, I also want to use something stable like concrete and put some kind of facing on it. Dont want the falls falling over once the water is running and all. What a disaster it would be to come home and find your pond totally drained because the waterfall decided to take a plunge......rock veneers would give the waterfall a nice look, good idea. Thanks

 

[y2kdejesus]

FredrikA, what a beautiful waterfall you have there. I like that natural look. I might have to look up some free boulders on craigslist overhere as well. Never thought of that. Very nice idea .....Thanks

 

[DrCase]

Hey jesus i been up at the lake ..
just saw your ?
i do have some in the gallery, it might be easier to look at my photo album ,,just click on DrCase

 

[y2kdejesus]

Yup Lake Pleasant plan on going there this weekend, Checked out your pond pics on gallery Thanks

 

[DrCase]

if you search for ...how i hide my filters ..it has some build pics

 

[CPT_CRUNCH]

looks great

 

[D&RW]

My first attempt last year--started with an EasyPro Medium Aquafalls. Elevated it on cinder blocks. Created a channel for the water to descend over 2 more weirs. To contain the flow I built up the sides using mortar and whatever rocks and cinder blocks. Really a hodgepodge and it would make a rock mason cringe. Way ugly, but I covered it with something called Rock On A Roll which did a good job of covering it up. I stacked real rocks against it for better appearance.

I'm also about to redo our waterfall so these ideas are great. Thanks everyone. Attaching a few pictures. The other waterfall picture is of one where I work and I really like it. But they used some very big rocks and they'd be a bear to move.