Ron's journey through the Southwest took him to a city where natural wonders abound. Sedona, Arizona, surrounded by enormous red rock formations, is home to Doreen and Paul Slevin, who retired there a couple of years ago. The Slevins love spending time outdoors and it's no wonder when you see their spectacular view. When the couple heard that Ron was passing through, they wrote in and asked if he would help them add a waterfall and pond built from the Sedona area's natural stone. Ron was happy to help with such a beautiful and soothing project.
Click Here For a list of what
you will need in order to complete this project.
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1. Define the outline:
- The first step was to define the perimeter of the pond. They did this by using a stick to trace the outline in the dirt.
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- Next they planned the contours and height of the stone wall, which would be stacked in front of an existing wall. Ron thought that masking tape applied directly to the wall would work best to help them visualize various heights.
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- After they had determined the outline on the ground, Ron used chalk to make the line more visible so they could get a better idea of what the shape of the pond would look like.
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- A good thing about using chalk is that it can be easily "erased". If you don't like how the outline looks, you can cover it over and redraw the line. It's important to commit to a design before beginning the digging.
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2. Begin digging:
- To create the pond, they needed to dig out the area outlined by chalk to a depth of one and a half to two feet.
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- While Paul finished with the digging, Ron used a tamper to compact the soil where the rocks for the fountain would be stacked.
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3. Install pond liner:
- They used a very heavy gauge vinyl, puncture resistant pond liner to create the bottom of the pond. They would use it to line the entire hole and also go up part of the wall.
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- To hold the liner in place, they temporarily taped it to the wall. The liner would be used to prevent water from leaking out of the pond and to keep the existing wall from getting wet. While Ron taped the liner to the back wall, Doreen and Paul carefully positioned it in the hole.
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- Ron explained that the liner should fit the inside of the pond like a glove. A snug fit would make the liner less visible after the pond was filled with water, so this was an important step.
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4. Stack stones:
- They would eventually cut away the excess liner with a pair of scissors, but first, it was time to begin stacking the stone wall. Paul and Doreen had ordered the stones from a local stone yard and laid them out on the front yard. The type of rock they chose was called stripped red rocks; the same red rock that Sedona is famous for.
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- They laid all of the rocks out so they could get a good look at each one. They would have to select each rock, one by one, to build up the wall that the water would cascade over.
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- Selecting each rock was a little bit like piecing together a puzzle. They looked for stones with similar widths, edges and thickness that would fit well together.
- Because the rocks were not perfectly flat, they sometimes needed to use shims to level them. The shims were actually just thin pieces of rock that were inserted under the crooked stone to raise it up and level it.
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- Before the wall became too high, Doreen ran a hose up behind the stones to what would eventually be the top of the waterfall. A pump would be located in the bottom of the pond to circulate the water up through the hose and out the top where it would then flow down the face of the rock.
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- As they were stacking the stones, they tried to keep the wall level horizontally but actually put a slight tilt or slope from back to front so that the water would be sure to run off the front edge of these rocks onto the next one and eventually into the pond.
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- Also, while building the rock wall, they tried to stagger the joints wherever possible. Because the rocks were natural and not of uniform size, they weren't able to stagger every rock, but Ron pointed out that you wouldn't want to do it every time because the wall would appear too planned and lose it's natural appeal. But in general, staggering rocks makes the wall look better and makes it stronger.
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