Which material is best for fountains and water features ?

This depends on who your asking, if your asking a retailer who is selling stone or plastic garden fountains you will undoubtedly get the answer that stone or plastic is best and the same can be said for manufacturers using any other material, the truth is each material has its good points and bad points so here are a few

Stone- is the traditional material used for decorative fountains, most produced today are made from concrete which is poured into a mould to produce a dense stone casting that is cold to the touch, hard wearing and as close to natural stone as you can get without carving from a single block. usually supplied in sections as they tend to be heavy. Limestone or some other aggregate together with sand cements and pigments will be used in their manufacture, most 'marble fountains' are mainly imported from Italy or Spain and manufactured by adding marble chippings to white cement to produce an imitation marble. Stone fountains produce a crisp clear water sound as opposed to some other materials such as plastics which tend to damp out the sound, imagine running a tap into a plastic bucket and you can realize the difference in sound quality. If left full of water in freezing conditions stone fountains and water features can become cracked or fracture in the same way that natural stone will, so a little maintenance prior to the winter setting in is required such as draining the fountain or water feature, this is not usually a problem as no matter which type of fountain is bought the pumps will require a clean out at least once a year.

Painted stone- are perhaps a thing to avoid as the paint obscures fine detail of the castings and can hide a multitude of problems such as repairs to poor castings that will crack with the first frost. Painted stone fountains also peel exposing the basic cement colour underneath, these painted fountains are very often of poor quality and should be avoided. Better to look for stone or concrete fountains with pigments or sands added to give the final colour, you can see the raw casting surface and so by necessity are usually of a higher quality than the painted ones.

Plastic- are generally cheaper as they are mass produced usually in the far east and imported in bulk. There is a huge range of plastic fountains available, sometimes under strange material names to confuse the buyer, these types of garden fountains and water features are usually hollow lightweight constructions which is good for easy handling and shipping but not so good on a windy day. Plastic fountains are low maintenance but will never age well, the paint will fade and peel and the plastic will go brittle with age. The all important sound quality may also be low as the plastic hollow construction absorbs the sound of the water. Unlike stone fountains that are cold to the touch plastic fountains are warm to the touch, this leads to greater evaporation so more frequent topping up may be required. Plastic garden fountains and water features are cheap and if that's your only criteria then that's probably all your interested in

Glass and mirror water features - mostly available in geometric shapes they tend to be similar to the plastic options available mirror surfaces are usually plastic stuck onto hollow plastic castings, there are some quality products out there but look closely before buying to tell if its a quality product or cheap import

Next....Buying a fountain or water feature online

<< Go Back