DIY Water Feature


It had been my dream to own a water feature in my balcony, or at least a mini pond filled with koi fishes, relaxing the mind in the sound of splashes...

This idea strucked me when a boss of the hardware shop (五金店) cleared my doubt on the use of cement. My only experience with cement was during the time when I 'supervised' the reno for my house. Though I'd noticed the details how the contractor mixed and built walls, screeded the floor, I had totally zero hands-on experience with cement.

It's a risk! I bought the whole big pack of powdered cement with another sack of sand home, determined to give it a try. Frankly, even a contractor don't build a water feature using cement I believe!

To share some details on the making of this water feature, I've actually used a few plastic trays as the moulds for the tower. They were trays to hold and display toiletries or cosmetics mechandise and were dicarded from the Watson store. You can collect them free of charge if you are lucky enough, lol! As for the bowl, you couldn't have noticed it is a old cooking wok that I'd used as mould, haha!
After mixing the cement with a portion of sand and water to get a certain consistency, I poured it in the moulds (1bowl, 4 walls for the tower) to set. For the wok, I did not pour the cement full. A plastic basin, a bit smaller than the size of the wok, was used here, to put on the cement and press down to form the bowl depression. Something heavy was put in the basin so that the depression will be formed in around 3-4 hours. Just before the cement has fully hardened in the wok, I carefully took out the plastic basin from the top of the wok. By now, the shape should be fixed but the cement is still semi dry from the inside. I used a hollow tube (big enough for the pipes of the water pump to go through) to create a hole by inserting it in the cement of the wok. Time for the whole set of cements to cure in 36 hours!

It's a pity that I did not take any picture while I'm at work at that time (2005) to make it into a tutorial to share. But rest assured, if you are interested to know more, do drop me a message. Enjoy!


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