The art of soundscaping: Using water features to cover up unwanted sights and sounds

Water features as visual barriers

In addition to the annoying sounds coming from cars and/or neighbours, water features can also be used to cover up unwanted visuals—or to create a visual barrier between neighbours. Once again, it is important to remember many homes are situated on very small lots and neighbours can often peer into each other’s yards. When tall fences and walls are not an option, water features can be the perfect solution.

“We offer features on all our new pools, but we frequently add them on renovation jobs as well,” says Glen MacGillivray, the president/owner of Aqua-Tech Pool, Spa and Bath in Winnipeg. “Even if the client does not specifically ask for a cave, grotto, waterfall, or slide on their pool, it is a feature we present to them as an option—especially when there is a need for a sound or visual barrier.”

Providing privacy

Providing privacy is the primary objective for most water features acting as barriers between neighbours or visible roads.

“One of my clients just had me build a grotto with two big fire bowls; she wanted privacy so people couldn’t look into her pool while she was swimming,” says Hegedus.

For this particular project, Coastal Coating installed a love-seat grotto that was more than 1.5 m (5 ft) tall.

“The homeowner also wanted to draw attention to the water feature by adding the fire bowls that use injected gas so the fire looks like it is dancing across the water,” says Hegedus. “It really provides an incredible visual appeal as well as complete privacy from the nearby marina.”

Positioning and placement of water features on the pool and in relation to the patio, house, and windows is important—not just the client’s house, but also with the layout of the neighbour’s yard and house.

“Waterfalls and grottos with built-in slides are by far the most effective noise and visual barrier for my clients,” says Lenz. “This allows us to create a tall feature that is not only part of the pool, but also large enough to completely block out the neighbour’s yard.”

Lenz says on one particular job his company had they completely moved the client’s patio seating area as far away as possible from the neighbour’s yard. Then, a water feature with a slide was installed that was wide enough to completely block the neighbour’s view of his client’s new lounge area.

“We even added a smaller water feature within the new seating area to provide an additional soundscape,” says Lenz. “When the project was completed, the client was delighted with the new layout of their backyard.”

Cast-concrete stones, waterfalls, and grottos provide a lightweight option for builders when installing tall visual barriers between neighbours and roads, making them much more cost-effective than real stones. Builders and renovators know the importance of being able to determine exactly how much time it will take to execute each element of a particular job—not only to provide an accurate quote on the project, but also for planning and scheduling purposes.