After a few small earthquakes last summer, I noticed that our water bill was higher than usual. I started looking around for suspect causes, and saw that the refill mechanism on our waterfall seemed to be running more than normal. I surmised that the tremors we had experienced had probably jarred the rocks just enough to cause small leaks that were undetectable due to the natural overspray of the falls. My first problem was to identify where the leaks were occurring. Then I had to determine the best way to fix them.
Identifying the leak(s) – I drained the waterfall and let the sun dry it for a day. Next, I filled it very slowly to the lowest level I was comfortable with to ensure there would be no pump motor damage. I turned the falls on, and watched closely. Because the overspray was significantly minimized, it allowed me to conclude that any wetness outside of the falls area itself was due to seepage. I did see seepage in several places that should not have been occurring. The sources of some, however, were not easily identifiable, since they were in areas where the water was actually flowing.
Best way to repair – Because it was impossible to isolate all the leaks, my only choice was to re-mortar the entire four-level falls. I drained it again, and this time had to also remove the water from the three upper pools. I did this with a shop vac. I waited three days just to be sure that everything was completely dry before I began. I mixed the mortar according to the manufacturer’s instructions and applied it basically to the entire structure. I worked in small areas at a time, doing my best to pack the mortar as deeply into the crevices as possible and scraping away all the excess with my trowel.
Tinting – After the job was complete, I filled the falls and ran them again to check for leakage. Luckily, I did not have any. However, the falls looked really bad, because the mortar was a totally different color than the stone used in the waterfall. I looked around and found a small rock that was close to the color I wanted, and took that with me to the home improvement store where I bought a mortar tinting kit to match as closely as possible. I applied it with a small brush, and let it dry thoroughly. Although it does not match perfectly, if you did not know it had been repaired, you probably wouldn’t notice.