Water features in the public realm are designed to be seen every day of the year, yet on many sites they spend each winter drained. Ed Harwood, Maintenance Contracts Manager at Waterscapes, says the decision is usually made out of habit after handover, rather than because the feature needs it.
“A commercial feature is built to keep running,” he says. Moving water freezes far less readily than standing water, the pumps and filtration sit in a plant room kept frost-free, and the controls can be set for the season. Display timers can stop before dusk so paving has time to dry, and frost stats or wind anemometers can cut the spray before it reaches surfaces where it could freeze. The one case for draining for the season rather than for a job is safety: a dry plaza where ice from spray would put pedestrians at risk.
Draining without a maintenance reason tends to cost more than it saves. An empty pool sits in full view from November to March. Rain, leaves and debris collect in it and in the low points of the pipework, leaving still, untreated water of the kind every water hygiene plan aims to avoid. And in spring the feature needs cleaning out, refilling, its water treatment reset and its plant recommissioned, at the busiest point of the year.
“A feature that’s running gets looked at. One that’s been drained tends to be forgotten until March, and that’s when the problems show up,” says Harwood.
There are good reasons to empty a feature: leak investigations, repairs, deep cleans, resurfacing and refurbishment. Waterscapes’ guidance is that these should be planned drain-downs with a scope, a start date and a date to refill, carried out whenever suits the site.
For designers, the guidance is a reminder that year-round running is decided early. The plant room, the controls and any sensors near pedestrian surfaces all shape whether a feature can keep running safely through the winter, and whether it does.
The full guidance, Do Commercial Water Features Need Draining? Why They Run All Year, is at waterscapes.co.uk/blog/do-commercial-water-features-need-draining
Waterscapes has designed, installed and maintained commercial water features and irrigation across the UK since 2002.
