Pondless Waterfall Transformation: Turning a Dead Corner into Living Art

By John Underwood

Published on January 31, 2025

Pondless waterfall
An inspiring custom pondless waterfall transformation, built to last!

In the fall of 2023 I built a pondless waterfall for Mitchell’s Orland Park Florist and wrote about the project for POND Trade. During construction of this water feature, I interacted with several customers. Our construction process peaks everyone’s curiosity. I met a lady who said she could picture something like this in her backyard. Mitchell’s Florist displayed my business cards at their counter, she took one, and told me she would be in touch.

An uninspiring DIY design, set up to fail.

The very next season we planned to meet for a consultation to see her property. Once I received her address, I looked it up on a satellite map and saw some nice grass areas to build anything I could dream up. When I arrived, we walked through their house and through their walk out basement door. I instantly saw a beautiful paver patio with an outdoor kitchen, fire pit, and hot tub in the distance. This yard is meant for entertaining guests!  

When I look at yards my mind considers sight lines, first from inside looking out your windows, next from several places guests will be sitting. I see two steps leading to grass and I begin thinking, tall fountain feature, visible from this courtyard and upper balcony. It was at this moment I was directed to look at this shaded odd corner under the balcony.

When the homeowner purchased the home, they inherited a DIY attempt at a pondless waterfall. It never really worked and sat dormant. Therefore, it had stagnant water in a basin with a scent you definitely aren’t eager to hang out beside. The design was very uninspiring as well. After seeing what was built at the flower shop, she was ready for an upgrade.

Replicating nature

When we build we attempt to trick the eye into believing our feature was carved out by nature, not by man. Building something that looks natural is no small feat. Nature’s chaos is deceptive and perfectly imperfect. Replicating that in someone’s yard involves a mix of thoughtful design and willingness to improvise when things don’t go as planned. Achieving this goal when the backdrop is a tree lined, wide open yard, gardened to perfection is hard enough. But, when the backdrop is a brick wall corner, with an office window, and an A/C condenser, I realized I had my work cut out for me!

Adapting the parameters to my location

Designing something visual pleasing, while building it to be structurally sound to last decades is our goal. The height of the window ledge and the distance from the A/C condenser tells me the total height for the upper pooling section of the waterfall is limited. To achieve height, I chose a medium stacked slate sphere as my vertical element. I really like the medium/large spheres, because they are shipped in four sections.

Being creative, I take one element and turn it into two features. I use the top three sections for the sphere, and fabricate the bottom section as a shallow spillway bowl. The next design task was matching color palettes. Which stone selection would look at home with the brickwork? I chose Tennessee Mossy Mountain boulders. This stone, for those wo have worked with it, comes from quarries full of moss. Because this location has virtually no sun, moss is a great shade plant option. At this point I have one question remaining, how much depth do I have for my Aquablox basin?

Construction of the pondless waterfall transformation

Close-up view of pondless waterfall in Illinois
Living art that energizes this whole space.

Due to access issues and finished pavers, we opted to make this job machine free. Shovels and a tree dolly were the only tools. On day one we completed exploratory digging to see if there was enough depth for small or large Aquablox + pump vault. Unfortunately, I hit the house foundation with cement/rebar within 20 inches. I leveled the surface with sand for insurance, then installed fabric/liner/fabric, and eight small Aquablox/pump vaults for 153 gallons of water storage.

After a two-tier feature was decided upon, I built the second tier directly on top of my basin. We achieved this by setting the front face boulders, then folding the liner forward and backfilling with dirt creating a tabletop for my sphere. I hand selected all my main character boulders, so I knew my waterfall weir stone before I left my rock supplier. The plan was to have one large drop fall from the sphere deck, one ribbon come off the spillway bowl, coming together in a deep canyon pooling section. The water would then flow over the canyon weir stone into the basin.

My pump choice was an Aquascape SLD 5000, plumbing had 2-inch flex pvc go into two Ts and ball valves. I directed one towards the bowl, and installed the other lined up with the tabletop. On the table top I split once more into two Ts and ball valves. I reduced both to 1.5” lines, one going to the sphere standing pipe, and the other into an Aquablox under the sphere. This method controls splash off the sphere and directs more water to a well up point, without losing the flow off the main waterfall. Six, 1-watt LED spotlights were installed. I then jumped right into waterfall foaming and the detail work.

I harvested extra moss for this build, knowing we were limited to full shade planting options. Creeping jennies and a few hostas soften the edges. This waterfall flowed perfectly from the test fire. It was one of the few times in my career where no adjustments were needed.

Mission complete: A pondless waterfall transformation

This project presented a fun challenge. There are more odd corners than perfect settings out there, so my hope is to embolden builders to solve these puzzles for their customers. What have I learned so far in my career building water features?

Patience pays off.  Whether it’s a stubborn rock or dealing with unexpected challenges, taking the time to do it right displays the highest level of integrity.

About the Author

John Underwood is the owner of Underwood Water Gardens LLC. He was recently named Aquascape Regional Rookie of the Year.

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Company: Underwood Water Gardens, LLC
Designer: John Underwood
Installer: John Underwood
Contact Info: Underwoodwatergardens@gmail.com
Project Location: Orland Park, IL
Size: 15-foot pondless waterfall
Components: One medium stack slate sphere, one 15-foot x 25-foot- 45MIL EDPM liner, geotextile fabric, eight small Aquablox, one-pump vault, Aquascape SLD 5000 pump, misc. plumbing, six- 1-watt LED spotlights, two tons of Tennessee Mossy Mountain Boulders, 1.5 ton medium Red Flint gravel, 1-yard of topsoil
Time to Complete: 32-man hours
Crew: John Underwood
Buyer’s Cost: $15,000.00

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