Pool Water Features in McLendon-Chisholm, Texas

Water features for newer homes on large lots

Of the 1,503 homes in the Census Bureau's 2020–2024 survey, 903 were built in 2010 or later, 325 of them since 2020, and the median year built is 2013. Almost all, 98.7%, are single-family detached houses; about 98.5% of occupied homes are lived in by their owners; and the median owner-occupied home is valued at $629,400, with a median household income of $204,773.

When the City asked residents about parks for its 2021 comprehensive plan, they voted 31 to 11 for city parks and named walking trails, bike paths, connected neighbourhoods, water features and children's equipment as what they would want in them. At the time the City had no parks of its own.

Sizing a waterfall for the pool

Pentair sizes its waterfalls by flow: about 15 gallons per minute for each foot of waterfall length, so a 3-foot waterfall needs 45 GPM, with 10 GPM a foot as a floor that may not give the look you want. Each fall gets its own flow-control valve after the filter, no fall should face more than 6 feet of head loss, and Pentair recommends a variable speed pump. It also wants its falls fed from a cartridge filter of 20 microns or finer, never a sand or DE filter, because debris in the water disrupts the flow and the waterfall itself can't be cleaned.

Codes, permits and wiring for water features

The City requires builders, contractors and homeowners to get permits and inspections for new and renovation projects, takes applications online and publishes a list of registered contractors. Its code adopts the 2021 International Swimming Pool and Spa Code with local amendments (Ordinance 2025-08, adopted May 9, 2025), along with the 2021 residential and building codes and the 2023 National Electrical Code, for building, alteration and repair in the city and its extraterritorial jurisdiction. Rockwall County and the city also share an interlocal agreement that settles whether the city's development rules or the County's subdivision rules apply to land in that outer fringe.

The local pool-code amendments weren't posted with the code, so ask the City what a waterfall, scupper or lit feature needs before it is built.

Who wires the lights and pumps

Texas licenses electricians through the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, and anyone doing non-exempt electrical work must hold a license and work through a licensed electrical contractor. For its lit bubblers, Pentair requires the pool to meet Article 680-22 of the National Electrical Code and local codes, with the electrical system put in by a licensed or certified electrician before any underwater light.

How a water feature is added to a pool

1. 01

   Choose the effect and its height

   Pentair caps its sheet effect at a 3-foot fall, because the thin sheet narrows as it falls, and above that height breaks apart and makes a buffeting noise; its rain effect, less touched by wind, can go up to 6 feet.

2. 02

   Set the unit at the bond beam

   Pentair's waterfalls usually sit in the bond beam just above the tile line or in a raised wall above it, so wall thickness, tile or stone thickness and the weight of the covering concrete or stone are worked out first.

3. 03

   Plumb and support the line

   The fall takes 2-inch pipe, and the supply line is supported rather than left hanging from the lip, where its joints could fail and leak.

4. 04

   Tile and cure

   Oceanside Glass & Tile doesn't recommend tiles with any edge longer than 5 inches for pools and water features, and wants submerged tile cured at least 21 days before it goes under water.