You have a swimming pool. You have kids and your kids have friends. Kids get thirsty and need to stay hydrated.
You don’t want them to drink the pool water. You don’t want them drinking from the garden hose. You don’t want them constantly tracking through the house to get a drink and you don’t want to be a busperson, delivering drinks all day long.
Solution? Install an outdoor drinking fountain. This can be a job you do yourself, contract out or it can be a combination of the two. If you are well-versed in all areas of outdoor installations and plumbing, then have at it. The average homeowner, however, is likely to benefit by utilizing a professional plumber.
Whether-or-not you do all the work yourself you should be familiar with the overall process. Following is a list of the basic steps involved with putting in an outdoor drinking fountain.
- Location and trenching – You want the fountain in a convenient spot and you need to be able to access your cold-water supply. This is a good time to test-fit your water lines and identify any obstacles (fencing, masonry, etc.) that need to be worked around or through.
- Set the water line – In most instances you will want to sleeve the water line, that is, run the water line through a larger diameter pipe.
- Tap into cold-water line – This portion of the project will involve some basic pipe-cutting and soldering skills.
- Set Fountain – When you place your fixture make sure you have allowed room for control valves and supply lines before permanently affixing the fountain and burying your water line.
- Final steps – Be certain that all connections are secure, finalize the securing of the fountain and turn on your water supply.
Now you can you can close the patio doors and point to the fountain when the kids want to come traipsing into the house.
