Pool Water Features and Waterfalls in Flower Mound, TX

Types of pool water features

Sheer descents and rain effects

Pentair says a sheet effect is thin and sensitive to wind, and narrows as it falls. It plans about 15 gallons per minute for each foot of waterfall, so a 3-foot waterfall needs 45 gallons per minute; 10 per foot is the least it will run on, though it may not give the look wanted. Each waterfall gets its own flow control valve after the filter and 2-inch plumbing, and a variable-speed pump is recommended.

Scuppers and spillways

Custom Molded Products’ instructions for Bobe scuppers allow one in the bond beam or on top of it, with an extra inch notched out around a scupper set in the beam for leveling. Each water feature gets its own pump plumbed with at least 2-inch pipe and a filter strainer between the pump and the feature, and every scupper has a bonding lug on the back. Pebble Technology International designs its copper scuppers for 10 to 30 gallons per minute per linear foot, or 15 to 40 for scuppers 36 inches and wider, warns that wind can affect the water sheet, and says copper darkens to a patina from weather and pool chemicals.

Deck jets

Pentair’s Deck Jet is cast into a concrete deck or the gunite sidewall of the pool, wired to the rebar so it stays put while the concrete is placed, with a shield plug flush with the finished surface until the hardscape is done. Pentair recommends filtered water for deck jets and a PVC ball valve on each one where there are several, because they need so little flow and pressure that differences in pipe length show in the effect.

Rock waterfalls and raised walls

Where a raised wall holds water on one face and dries on the other, the American Shotcrete Association’s guidance on negative-edge and above-ground pool walls applies: such walls need measures that make them watertight, since constant one-way water movement leaches calcium and can badly deteriorate the concrete over time. Salt building up behind tile or a coating can break down the binder and debond it, and the Association advises against putting a paint, sealer or coating that doesn’t breathe on a surface already showing efflorescence. New efflorescence only days old usually comes off with a bristle brush and water; left to harden into a dense deposit, it can be very hard to remove. Tile for a raised wall is covered with glass tile and all-tile pool finishes.

Flower Mound Pool Resurfacing will talk through which of these suits your pool.

Permits for a water feature

Flower Mound’s amended pool code requires a permit before anyone alters or repairs a pool or spa, or any system the code regulates, so ask Building Inspections whether your feature needs one. In Canyon Falls, PD-98 bars pools, spas and decks from encroaching into the minimum side yards, and pool equipment in view of a street or common area must be screened. In Bartonville, where the median owner-occupied home is valued at $932,700 in 2020–2024 survey estimates and estate zoning sets minimum lots of two and five acres, the Town’s pool permit checklist asks for a site plan and a pool plan stamped by CoServ, and our page on pool water features in Bartonville covers that town.

Pool water feature questions and answers