Wall-mounted fountains can enhance even the smallest courtyard or patio and are surprisingly easy to put together and maintain. They are made up of a reservoir, which collects the water and houses a small submersible pump, and a facing or wall plaque, from which the re-circulated water trickles. The reservoir can be a design feature in its own right, such as a carved stone bowl or a semi-circular wooden barrel, or you could choose to hide this element by sinking it beneath the ground and covering with pebbles or rounded cobblestones.

The method listed below details how to install a wall mounted fountain directly onto the outside wall of your house. This will enable you to take the power cable through the house wall so that you can plug it into an indoor socket fitted with an RCD (residual current device). Alternatively, you may want to fix your feature to a different garden wall; if this is some way from the house, you will need a qualified electrician to fit a proper outdoor socket and connect the power using a waterproof plug connected to an RCD.

Fixing the Electrical Cabling

Drill a hole through the house wall for the electric cable from the pump. If possible, the hole should be drilled in a position where it will be hidden by the reservoir. Fit a conduit pipe to the hole, and then feed the cable through. Put on a plug and connect to an indoor socket fitted with an RCD.

Positioning the Reservoir and Plaque

Place the reservoir in its final position, fill with water and put in the pump. Mark on the wall where the plaque should go. This is often best placed just below eye level, but this will also depend on the design of the plaque and whether you will normally view the feature whilst sitting down or standing up.

You may want to hide the water pipe from view by using a false wall. If so, mark off where this will be positioned and fix two wooden battens horizontally at either side of this area and one vertically at the top. Mark where the water pipe will run and fix two shorter pieces of batten vertically along the bottom of the false wall, so that the pipe will be able to pass between them. Position the water pipe in this gap, and then hold the false wall or trellis to the battens so that you can mark off where you will need to cut a hole to allow the water pipe to exit. Attach the wall to the battens.

Instead of building a false wall, you could chisel out a groove in the wall to slot the water pipe into; alternatively you could simply cover the pipework with lush planting.

Fixing the Plaque

Position the wall plaque so that the water pipe exits through the gap. Attach to the false wall or real wall; some features may simply be hung using wall nails, whilst others are screwed on or mortared to a wall. If using mortar, support the plaque with temporary wooden battens and allow it to set for several days.

Adjusting the Flow

Turn the power on and check the flow of the water; this should be high enough so that the water flows out of the wall down into the reservoir, but not so high that it splashes excessively. Use the flow adjuster on the pump to achieve the right balance.