Adding Oriental Touches to a Pool's Environment

Doghouse Riley · 30-07-2011, 01:43 PM

One way of enhancing the look of your garden if you've a koi pool is to add some Japanese touches.

Lanterns are ideal for this.

I wanted one to compliment my koi pool and to look "old."
Those in garden centres 25 years ago were horrendously expensive and I'm talking £50 to £100 big money back then. Now you're talking £300 or more, they didn't look authentic then or now and appeared obviously to have been cast in molds.

I found this photo in a book on Japanese culture.

It was authentic and exactly what I was looking for, so I decided to make my own. Anyone who's made a sandcastle can do it, it's that simple.

All you need is some fine concrete mix, cheaper to buy it loose, but more expensive and easier with bags of ready mix.
Sand and cement mortar.
Cement dye, your choice of colour.
I used this to get the end result to look like sandstone, the same colour as my patio.
Some lengths of scrap timber.
An old sheet of hardboard or plywood.
Some plastic tubs.
A sheet of contiplas to use under the molds,(the concrete won't stick to it).

The first step is to make a box the size of the base, (like a big cake tin).
Then mix up some concrete but just damp not wet, you don't want to see any liquid.
At the same time make up some mortar mix with added yellow cement dye.

Fill the box with the concrete a bit at a time (about two or three inches for each layer) but force the cement mix down each side of the box to form a layer a couple of inches or so thick. I also put a long bolt down the middle, the end of which would protrude a couple of inches above the box to secure the next bit.
Carry on until the box is filled, but also have the same thickness of cement on the top.

Let it go off over night and then carefully remove the box. (don't try to tip it out!) Depending on the ambient temperature, you may be able to round off the sides and corners with the side of a chisel or an old knife if it's still not quite gone off, but if you're not confident, leave it until it is dry and then use a file.
The two flat pieces are made in the same way, with the formers made of bits of wood, you need two sizes, as the top is bigger than the lower one. Set these out on the Contiplas and the bottoms will be smooth. But the sides of the bottom one must slope down and the other slope up. So just reverse the top former.
I put a bit of copper pipe in the middle bit to take the bolt in the base (it's upside down in the picture). You don't need to make the cement skin as thick on these just at the corners which need rounding off to simulate wear with age.
I put a bit of weldmesh in each to strengthen them. If the mix is the right consistency the top will hold its shape. Round these off in the same way when they've nearly gone off.
The top is made using the larger former, but an upturned half litre plastic ice cream container was put in the middle to form a space to take the lamp.

The four sides are made of all concrete mix with added dye. Note that two of the sides have to be shorter than the other two, by twice the thickness.
I used small plastic tubs to form the apertures in the sides.

When it's finished, put the base in the position you want it. "Stare at it for a couple of days" from different positions, or until you're happy with the location. You don't want to be moving them about as they are very heavy.

Fit the first "platform." You can either cement it in or as I have, just let it sit on the base secured by the socket and bolt. I did this way in case I ever wanted to move it, but check it's level. Then position the four sides "brickying them" with a thin layer of mortar where they butt up together.

Fill the middle with wet concrete mix in a "bowl shape" up to the bottom of the apertures as this is what is going to hold the four sides together. Then render up the sides to hide the joins.

When it's gone off fit the lamp, you can make a tray to support it out of a bit of plywood or the bottom of an ice cream container. My lights are recycled low voltage pool lights from our first pool, the cable is encased in a bit of speedfit pipe until it reaches the base fence panel behind it, then the cable goes right round the garden to the transformer in the tea house. It enters the lamp from the back through a small hole I made in one of the sides.
Check it works!
Then lift the top on, it'll be very heavy. If you've made the recess correctly it shouldn't foul the lamp. It doesn't need cementing in place as you will have to lift it off to change the bulb any time it blows.

Here's the kit.

This is it as it was "brand new" and looking if I may say, "quite old."

This photo was taken before I made the frog pond.

As it is now in a different position..

You can paint the top with natural yoghurt if you want the moss to grow on it more quickly than it will naturally occur. I've never tried it but I've been told it works.

The lamp here is augmented by a 35W spotlight on the concrete fence post that illuminates the waterfall. We like the way the light reflects off the moving water. I use the different coloured off-cuts of acetate sheets I used to restore one of my jukeboxes as a filter, this one's pink.

You can also use the "kit" to make another, this one however, is on a round column and I just changed the detail of the lamp a bit. I used the lower former to create the base. This one is sitting on a paving slab. The grill at the front was molded around a small square of weldmesh.

The 6' pagoda was even more adventurous because of the complicated design, I was inspired by a feature in the same book that had the photo of the lamp. The construction was very similar, the molds were made with cut up bits of polystyrene and display type fibreboard stuck on the contiplas to make the detail. It was made in seventeen sections. The balcony rails are made from hardwood beading.

I based it on photos of the three storey pagoda in Narita Japan I found in the book, I also used the photo below of one someone else had built for some of the finer detail not really visible in the photos.

There you go, this one's six feet high, but you can make them any size, that's a full size paving slab it's sitting on.

I couldn't quite replicate the "proper" detail of the corner pin joints...Well not in concrete, but I did my best.

I've recently rebuilt the finial on the top, the original one just rotted away.

There's no kit available, I made it from bits I had in the garage and shed. It's the top of a shaving gel aerosol can, a number of drilled-through old brass cupboard handles, some plastic curtain rings set in milk bottle carton tops, threaded onto a steel rod. A bit of a shaped and drilled-out plastic garden light stake for the sorin and a couple of wooden beads.

It looks quite good at night.

Of course I could have made it more elaborate had I the time.

This was the one in the same book printed in 1983, I guess this guy, Shintaro Okubo (born 1905) won't be around any more. I wonder what happened to the 12ft pagoda he built?

A lot of Japanese people seem to live in really tiny houses.
It said his next challenge was to build a thirteen storey pagoda. I wonder if he lived to make it?

sheryl · 30-07-2011, 06:23 PM

They all look great, well done Its a mazing what you can achieve If you take your time and plan things out. In the long run you can save a lot of money by having a go at a little DIY.

Doghouse Riley · 30-07-2011, 07:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sheryl

They all look great, well done Its a mazing what you can achieve If you take your time and plan things out. In the long run you can save a lot of money by having a go at a little DIY.

Thanks for that Sheryl,
Yes being a bit "handy" can save a fortune, all the hard landscaping, patio, pool, shed, tea-house, etc., I did myself, probably saved thousands.

You can't do everything at once and pool construction is expensive, but I had a long term plan including the pool and the garden (which actually I completed quite quickly) and worked towards it.
There's been no major changes in twenty years, other than more planting and to add edging pavers to to the lawn to make mowing an easier job.
The pool more or less looks after itself and I fit the garden in around playing golf three times a week and my musical hobbies..

"So much to do, so little time."