Spiral spray – Water Feature

Create a unique water feature by twisting soft-rolled copper piping into interesting shapes.

This copper fountain water feature can be made as big or small as you wish. The water holes can be drilled to different sizes depending on the effect that you want to achieve – smaller holes will produce more of a spray while larger holes will produce more flowing streams of water.

What you Need

•Sump – this is buried in the ground and provides a small ‘pond’ for the pump to operate in. You can use a pond liner or a small plastic or fibreglass pond. We used pond liner and added broken rock to finish it off around the edges.
•10 mm soft-rolled copper piping which is easy to shape by hand.
•Waterfall submersible pump – we used a Flow 2 400.
•Pipe fittings to join the copper pipe to the pump – we also used a ‘T’ fitting in order to have two spirals making up our fountain.
•Drill with small drill bits (1-3 mm) to make the water holes.
•Solder and plumbing torch to join the copper pipe to the elbows on ‘T’ fittings.
•Pebbles, rock or slate to hide the pond edges.
•’T’ fitting, if required.

Steps

Step 1. Twist and turn the copper pipe into the shape that you require. For a more substantial fountain, use ‘T’ fittings in order to add more individual pipes. The top ends of the pipes need to be sealed off – solder an end cap to each pipe or crimp the ends.  

Step 2. Drill holes in the pipe – the more water you want to have spraying, the more holes you need to drill. Start with small holes and run a test before committing to larger holes. Different size holes can be used on the same pipe for a less consistent look.  

Step 3. Dig a hole for the pond – line it with pond liner or insert a sump or pre-fabricated pond.  

Step 4. Use a pipe fitting to connect a length of pipe between the submersible pump and the copper fountain spray. Larger versions may require additional support as the pipes get heavier as they fill with water during use.

Total cost – This is an inexpensive, yet effective water feature and costs around R2 000 to build.