BUILD · WATER FEATURES
Water features.
Water in a DFW residential landscape is always a register decision before it is a mechanical one — the scale, the reflectivity, the sound it makes, and whether it reads as integrated with the hardscape or as an imposed object.
SCOPE — HONESTLY
What we build, and what we refer out.
What Alterra builds in-house: still-water basins, linear runnels, small dipping pools, and integrated fountains where the masonry, water supply, and drainage work sits within our scope and within our craft discipline. These are the water-feature typologies where the stone, the basin construction, the plumbing, and the electrical can be carried by the same build team that is setting the terrace and the coping. We specify, source, and construct the feature as a continuation of the hardscape rather than as a bolted-on object. We execute at the register the project demands without handing off to a specialist subcontractor whose scope does not align with the broader build.
What Alterra refers out: large sculptural fountains requiring cast-bronze or fabricated-metal work we do not fabricate in-house; koi-pond ecosystems that require specialist aquatic horticulture and filtration engineering; swimming-pool-adjacent infinity weirs when the pool contractor is already carrying the water-line scope — see Pools & Spas for where that edge sits. Where we refer, we refer to named collaborators whose scope is documented in the project record, whose work meets our register, and whose warranty terms are compatible with our own.
Honest scoping is a register decision. Overreaching scope produces the specific kind of failure that shows up at year two or year three: a fountain that worked at commissioning but whose pump housing was not sited for freeze, a koi-pond ecosystem that drifted because the aquatic-horticulture discipline was not part of the original build, an infinity weir that was built as an afterthought to the pool and reads as one on the finished site. Those failures damage the client relationship more than an honest referral at the outset would have. We scope to what we execute well, and we name the edge of that scope at the first conversation.
TYPOLOGIES
Four water-feature typologies.
Basin
A basin is still water at rest — a reflective pool, pump-free where the design allows, sized to the architectural axis that terminates in it. The dimension of the basin is derived from the line it closes rather than from a catalog of available basin depths. Lueders limestone or Pennsylvania bluestone coping runs flush with the adjacent terrace, so the water reads as an inlaid panel in the stone field rather than a recessed tub. We detail the overflow as a hairline cut that reads silent rather than as a gurgling weir.
Runnel
A runnel is a narrow channel sheeting water across a controlled gradient, aligned with the primary terrace axis so the water reads as a line in the composition rather than a decorative interruption. Width is proportioned to the stone the runnel sits in — typically 6 to 10 inches on a standard Lueders terrace — and the depth is similarly restrained. The sound is a low hiss rather than a splash; the register reads Mediterranean or modernist depending on coping treatment, and sits cleanly alongside a dining terrace without overwhelming the space.
Dipping pool
A dipping pool is a small plunge — cold or unheated, sized for one or two people rather than scaled for swimming — integrated with a primary dining or shade terrace so the edge of the pool reads as part of the hardscape rather than a separate amenity. Depth runs 3 to 4 feet; length runs 8 to 12 feet; coping runs continuous with the adjacent terrace. Equipment is sized for turnover rather than swim-pool circulation, and the whole feature reads as a deliberate part of the outdoor room, not a scaled-down swimming pool.
Fountain
A fountain is a small spill or burble where source and receiving basin are both clearly legible in the composition — a scupper into a trough, a bubbler into a basin, a wall spill into a low reflecting edge. Not a decorative object adrift from its context. The masonry carries the fountain rather than the fountain sitting on the masonry, and the scale is sized to the axis it terminates. Stone, spillway geometry, and basin dimension are drawn before any fabricated hardware is selected.
RESILIENCE · WATER FEATURES AFTER URI
Water, freezing, and the specification that prevents split pipe.
Every water run has at least one low point with a drain; long horizontal runs carry dead-man clearouts so the system can be isolated and emptied in sections. Basin geometry is drawn so gravity alone drains the feature completely at winter shutdown; we do not rely on pump circulation to keep a feature from freezing. Pump housings sit in sheltered microclimates identified in the Site & Story phase — under eaves, against south-facing walls, inside purpose-built masonry enclosures where the siting demands it. Sealant and basin material chemistry are selected for repeated freeze-thaw cycling without spalling; we use Lueders limestone or closed-cell concrete basin construction rather than softer stones or thin-shell fiberglass inserts that cannot take the cycle.
The full shutoff-and-drain sequence is documented in writing and handed to the homeowner at project handoff, with photo-indexed shutoff locations labeled against the as-built drawings. Every valve is identified; every drain is identified; the order of operations for a forecast freeze event is specified. We walk the protocol in person at the end of the first season, not as a single instruction but as a seasonal ritual the homeowner will own going forward. The protocol is not a verbal handoff. It is a printed document that lives with the project record and in the homeowner's hands — the same document we refer to on a forecast-freeze phone call the following February.
See the full resilience treatment: Read the Resilience section
MATERIAL
The feature is part of the hardscape.
The water feature is part of the hardscape, not an addition to it. Where the terrace is Lueders limestone, the basin coping and channel walls are Lueders. Where the terrace pulls toward Pennsylvania bluestone — cooler register, modernist architecture — the feature follows. The register of a brightly colored resin basin sitting on a limestone terrace is a material collision that undercuts both surfaces; we do not specify it. Where the feature wants a visual counterpoint — Corten steel for a spillway, cast bronze for a spout, a patinated copper rill — we still hold the carrying material consistent with the terrace, and we let the metal element carry the accent. Water is a register decision before it is a mechanical one. The feature lives in the hardscape composition, or it is not a feature; it is an object. See outdoor living for how these moments compose into the wider room outside.
SELECTED WATER FEATURE WORK
[OPERATOR: featured project records will appear here once project data includes matching typology.]