How To: DIY Faux Concrete Fountain
One of my favorite additions to our back patio this season is our DIY faux concrete fountain. It seems that most people online have created their own, too. It’s an inexpensive way to add some European charm and ambiance to your space.
DIY Faux Concrete Fountain
This beginner-friendly DIY will give you instant gratification with the lovely sound and feel it exudes. Add this DIY faux concrete fountain to any outdoor space you are looking to add some charm to.
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Supplies
- Planter of your choice, I found this one for $25 at Walmart
- Submersible fountain pump
- Copper pipe
- Teflon tape
- Clear silicone
- Flex Seal spray
- Stones/rocks
Tools
- Drill
- 1″ drill bit
- 3/16″ drill bit
- Angle grinder or hack saw to cut the copper pipe
- Caulk gun
Step-by-step
After you’ve chosen your planter, start by drilling a one-inch hole in the bottom (or just large enough for your pump’s electrical plug to fit through).
Feed your cord through the bottom of the planter, leaving a couple of inches of slack so you have enough room to move the pump around. You will need this flexibility in the end.
Place the planter upside down and set it on the cord to keep the pump upright. Then we ran a few small beads of silicone around the edges of the hole to begin filling in the gap. Once that had been set up for about 20 minutes, we continued with a few more beads of silicone until the entire hole was covered from the outside. Don’t add too much silicone, as this will lengthen your dry time.
We let the silicone dry overnight, then came back the next morning with Flex Seal just to make sure everything was sealed on the outside. Then we added a light layer of silicone on the inside and let that dry for a few hours. We then applied a few thin coats of Flex Seal to the inside of the planter and let it dry all day.
Then we performed a leak test by adding several inches of water to the planter and setting it on a dry bowl to see whether any water escaped. If you do find that your seal failed, add more Flex Seal and test again.
While we were waiting for the silicone and flex seal to dry, we applied Teflon tape to the threads of our pump insert to ensure a tight, leak-free fit with our copper pipe. We cut the pipe to size with a cut-off wheel on an angle grinder.
After testing the fountain, we found that the lowest pressure setting was still too high for our liking. To fix this, we drilled several holes near the bottom of the copper pipe to reduce the water pressure.
We set our fountain pump on an old glass bowl at the bottom of our planter and centered it. Then we filled in and around the pump with stones to give it a finished look.
Be sure to tag me on Instagram if you make this DIY faux concrete fountain! If you have any questions, leave them below or send me a message. I’m more than happy to help.
If you enjoyed this tutorial, share it with your friends and let them know how easy it was!
