Waterfalls are one of the natural wonders of the world. Oklahoma is even famous for the gorgeous Turner Falls in the Arbuckle Mountains. So why not add some natural beauty to your own swimming pool? Aside from looking amazing, a pool waterfall can have maintenance benefits as well. And there’s no single recipe for how to design one.

Let’s look at the benefits of waterfalls and the types to consider.

Benefits of a waterfall

Obviously, a cascading water feature is aesthetically pleasing. But this extra water flow can actually help improve a pool’s overall health. The moving water can make it harder for algae to grow in two ways:

  1. Algae prefers still waters.
  2. The waterfall helps stir up your pool water when you add cleaning chemicals. It behaves similar to a filtration system in this sense. 

Falling water is also a natural noise machine. Water makes different sounds depending on how far it falls and the surface it lands on. Water spilling straight into water can make a different and often quieter noise than water falling on stone or rock. The soft sounds of falling water can be very soothing and cover up any unwanted sounds of passing traffic, neighbors, and so on.

Types of waterfalls

There is more than one way to achieve a falling water affect through imaginative design. Waterfalls are often constructed by using rocks and boulders to mimic the shape of naturally occurring landscapes. Of course you can also have water falling over the edge of decorative tile.

A rain curtain is a cascading sheet of water installed high above the pool’s surface or pouring out of the side of a wall from a wide slot or spout in the form of a water wall. Similar to that is a sheer descent which is usually mounted even with a flat surface surrounding part of the pool like the pavement or any raised surface wide enough for a spout. The water falling from a sheer descent looks like you might imagine. It is a thin sheet of water that is almost glass-like as the it descends. 

There are plenty other small water features like bubblers, jets, sconce and scupper spouts, and statuaries that can add a unique flavor to a swimming area. All it takes to build them is a little time to design them and a desire for an improved pool. Be sure to direct your questions and project ideas to your trusted pool expert!