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Products like Atlantic's Colorfalls are designed to work with popular retaining walls and pavers for easy installation with minimal cutting.
Water features sell hardscape
The decision to offer water features as part of an outdoor room is a no-brainer.
By Demi Fortuna, Atlantic Water GardensInstalling simple water features with a hardscape project is a difference-maker for winning new clients. Yet, as a small piece of your project, water features add a disproportionately large amount to your profit. Plus, the industry has come so far in recent years that you can offer a menu of options that you install as easily as following a kit, and maintenance is minimal.
Who wouldn’t want a lighted waterfall or fountain stone out their kitchen or family room windows? Water features enhance that great place to relax after work, create a focal point that draws attention and muffles distracting sounds, and they provide a sparkling spot to gather for conversation and cocktails. With LED lighting, water features really show off after the sun goes down, even offering beautiful, dramatic views from the house.
Decorative water features rank in the top of homeowners' lists for most wanted landscape improvements. Over 90% of the landscape architects surveyed for 2013 Residential Landscape Architecture Trends predict high demand for water features to continue. The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) publishes the annual survey.
Home buyers want water features as much as the current homeowners. It's an investment your client gets to enjoy that will one day also help sell their house.
Get a greater return
Water features provide a good return for you as well. One contractor in Long Island, NY commented, "It takes from 30 minutes to 2 hours to install a fully self-contained water feature, and we charge about triple our cost. That’s more profit, and faster, than we can make on walls or flatwork.
Today's fountain kits give you everything you need for a quick and easy installation. Atlantic's Basalt Column fountain is pictured.
Easy installation & operation
He explained that simple installation and maintenance are the keys to profitability. “It took maybe a day to learn all the basic hardscape water features we sell. You don't need to know how to build a pond to do this."The hardscape water features he sells include the LED lit pondless waterfalls, fountain basins and decorative fountain toppers like illuminated vases, pottery-style vases and basalt columns.
Hardscape water features are extremely simple to operate too, turning on automatically with outdoor lighting or switched on when the homeowner enters their outdoor living space. They cost very little to run; most hardscape water features are built to work with high efficiency LED lighting, low wattage magnetic drive pumps and use very little water, making them a low cost and environmentally friendly addition to any project.
“All these products recycle the water in self-contained basins, with filters that keep them clean, and we always install autofill valves on them, so they really are ‘set it and forget it’ water features. The homeowner adds a capful of a non-toxic enzyme-based cleaner once a week, and they just run."
Put a water feature in your next design. You’ll be amazed how easy it is to install and how happy your customers are. Not to mention what it does for your project portfolio. Before you know it, you’ll be adding them to all your projects.
Demi Fortuna is Director of Product Information for Atlantic Water Gardens. Contact demi@atlanticwatergardens.com
