How to make curving, stepped falls? PVC tubing?

[perplexed ponder]

I have this great idea for stair stepped falls that kind of curve toward the pond so that when I plant in front of the start of it, the beginning isnt' visible. Kind of like a mini stream. Is this difficult to execute? Problems I should watch for? Hubby says I won't be able to get the final falls to flow in a sheet. He insists that water will go to one side or the other and thinks I should just have one drop, straight in. IWhat do ya'll think? The plumbing has to be SIMPLE because I have to do it with my 14 year old son. Matt can't do any of it, just "supervise" the project.
Also thinking of using the 2" PVC white flexible tubing, any thoughts?
I can't wait to get this project started, and the weather is NOT going to cooperate this weekend.

[Michiponder]

Sounds like it will be beautiful Kathy.  If the falls are stepped enough and there is a flat surface for the water to drop from they will go over in a sheet.  The trick I learned is to have a small area beneath each drop for the water to fall into so it can flatten out before going over the next flat stone.  Once I built a small strean that dropped 5 times by doing this. I changed it to a 2 ft. waterfal and 2 4 in. drops though because I wanted to raise the stream so it was closer to the bottom of the bridge for a closer view.  When it was stepped I did not want to worry about leaks so I started with a 2x4" frame (sides and face of drops only) and then back filled it all with soil and tamped it down.  I then threw the liner over it and covered it with rocks.  It made it quite leak resistant because the liner beneath the rocks had several inches of board covered with liner to redirect the water.  You can easily angle the face of each drop to go in any direction you desire.  Remember to make the area that the water falls into wider than the falls at each step so that it will catch the splash or you will lose a little water at each drop.  The entire frame can be easily buried and hidden so that all you see is the rocks and waterfalls.  It never leaked or sagged in the 10 years it ran.  another advantage is that it makes it very easy to level each pool for a nice level drop at each location.  Remember to make the frame wide enough to accomdate the rocks too.     

[perplexed ponder]

Thanks Michi-
I was thinking of using my large slate pieces at each fall. That would work ok with the basin behind each one and maybe seal them with black foam or great stuff underneath, right? Framing it underneath sounds like a good idea! I had seen a set up at Bordine's expo a couple years ago that curved and had spruce trees planted in front of the wier where the fall started. It was gorgeous. Hoping to accomplish something like it on a much smaller scale.

[WAC]

These are good waterfall starters to create inward or outward curves.

From there (as previously mentioned) it's best to have a catch pool behind each step.  This allows for an even overflow thereafter.

[MikeW]

Sounds like an amazing plan Kathy.

I used pieces of slate, dropping in a straight line, and the water still always manages to go to one side anyway. Doesn't take a curve to achieve that!

Good luck.

Cheers,

Mike

[perplexed ponder]

Those are cool wiers. No money for new equipment though. I have to use what I have, nothing else. I also have to be able to do it myself with my son, Doug (14) as Matt is on a permanent 5 pound weight restriction.
Doug has been great about digging the holes for the skimmer and filter in solid clay. Now they will be filling up with snow! We are expecting 2-4 inches today, grrrrrrrr

[Michiponder]

More of that @$%#@# white stuff here too Kathy.  I found that the boards I used were much cheaper than a purchased unit.  I mostly just used scrap wood.  I simply pounded two short boards in for each drop and then leveled and nailed the stream side boards to the inside of those  and angled them back to beyond the last  and a little wider to make the short stream wider beneath the last drop.  Then I nailed a few short boards to the face of the stakes to bring it up to the bottom of the side boards.   When finished with the boards I simply backfilled with dirt and packed it down hard (had to move a lot on mine-almost 2 1/2 feet).  It left a mound packed up to the top of the boards with a level stepped trough about 4 or 5 inches deep about 2 feet wide and made about a 1` foot stream when finished with rocks.  Hoping that white stuff goes away fast so we can get back to ponding.

Mikel

[cindy]

To pour my pond footer, my hubby used a lightweight plywood that was flexible and staked it with rebar.

You just gave me and idea for my goldie pond

[perplexed ponder]

Mikel, Can you believe this weather?! Rain all next week! I'm never going to get this thing up and running.

Cindy, Thanks for the idea. Sounds labor intensive. I think I am going to be digging the steps out of the solid clay and praying it works.
Matt keeps telling me to just have a single drop and keep it simple. I have a vision of how this thing SHOULD look and I am going to try. If it doesn't work, then I can just do a single drop I guess.