Fountain repair in Boise, Idaho

Most calls for fountain repair in Boise start with a short sentence: "It just stopped," or "It hums, but no water comes out," or "The flow used to be strong and now it dribbles." Most of the time the problem is simpler than people fear. A fountain only has a few parts: a basin under the rock, a pump, some tubing and the feature on top. When one of them fails, the whole thing goes quiet.

I'm Kabe Hockema. I've worked on landscapes in the Treasure Valley since 2012, and I do the diagnosing myself. I build fountains and other outdoor water features with Aquascape components, so I know how these systems go together and where they wear out. You can see the full range of fountain work on my fountain contractor page.

Signs your fountain needs repair

• No water at all when it's plugged in.
• The pump hums but doesn't move water.
• Flow is weaker than it used to be, or it surges and sputters.
• The outlet trips every time the pump starts.
• The water level drops faster than it should.
• A crack in an urn, or a column that has started to lean.
• White crust building up on the stone and around the outlet.

The pump is the usual suspect

When a fountain goes quiet, I check the pump first. Here's what I tend to find.

A clogged intake. Leaves, seeds, small gravel and cottonwood fluff get pulled against the screen. Flow drops a little at a time until it stops.

The pump ran dry. If the water level falls below the pump, it pulls air. A pump that runs dry for long can overheat and burn out. August is hard on pumps, because evaporation is high and it's easy to forget to top off the basin.

A tripped GFCI. The safety outlet shuts off power when it senses a fault. Sometimes it's a one-time trip after rain. If it trips again and again, the pump or cord likely has a problem.

A worn or jammed impeller. The impeller is the small spinning part that moves the water. Debris or mineral scale can jam it, and that's when you hear a hum with no flow.

A damaged cord. Shovels, aerators and rodents all find cords. Any cut in the outer jacket means the pump gets replaced, not taped.

Hard water and weak flow

Treasure Valley water is hard, which means it carries a lot of dissolved minerals. As water evaporates, those minerals stay behind. Over a season they coat the pump, narrow the tubing and leave white crust on the feature. A good cleaning often brings the flow right back. If the pump is scaled up inside, it may be time for a new one. I'll show you how to clean the intake and which scale treatments help, so it builds up slower next year.

Damage from an Idaho winter

Our freeze and thaw cycles are hard on fountains that weren't shut down. Water left in a glazed urn freezes, expands and cracks it. Tubing and fittings split. A pump left sitting in frozen water can crack its housing. In spring I check every part before refilling, because a split fitting can look fine until the water runs.

When the problem is lost water

If the pump works but the basin keeps running low, the problem is water loss. That could be splash, wind, a loose fitting or a true leak. Tracking that down is its own job, and I explain how I do it on my fountain leak detection page.

How a repair visit goes

I start with the easy checks: power, the GFCI and the water level. Then I pull the pump, look at the intake and run it in a bucket so I can see how it does on its own. Next I check the tubing and connections, the basin, and the feature on top. Once I know what's wrong, I tell you plainly what I found, what it takes to fix it, and whether it's worth fixing.

Repair or rebuild?

Most problems come down to a pump, a fitting or a cleaning. Sometimes, though, the way the fountain was built is the problem. A pump buried with no way to reach it, a basin that has settled out of level, or a catch area too small for the splash will keep causing trouble. In those cases I may suggest rebuilding on a new basin and pump. That's the same work as a new fountain installation, and it can save you from paying for the same repair every spring. If your old fountain sits in an open bowl or pool, rebuilding it as a pondless fountain removes the standing water and most of the cleaning.

What affects the cost of a fountain repair

There's no set price, because it depends on what's broken. Cost goes up with:

• Parts, especially a new pump.
• Access. A pump buried under rock with no access point takes more labor to reach.
• Freeze damage to an urn or column that has to be replaced.
• Resetting a basin that has sunk or tilted.

Where I repair fountains

I handle fountain repair in Boise and the towns around it: Garden City, Eagle, Meridian, Star, Kuna, Nampa, Caldwell and Middleton, plus Hidden Springs. I also travel to Sun Valley and Ketchum, where longer, colder winters are even harder on fountains.

Get your fountain running again

If your fountain has gone quiet, schedule a consultation for fountain repair in Boise. I'll find the cause, fix what's worth fixing, and show you how to keep it running. Call (541) 961-7269, Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.